I get a fair number of calls or emails from reporters who want to know if there really is a formula that destroyed the world.

Something that seems significant in this regard was pointed out to me the other day.

? Fund managers whose careers were ruined by Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme are quite open in taking the easy route of blaming Madoff for having so cleverly misled them.

? Investment bankers whose careers and fortunes too were destroyed by the subprime market collapse (Stan O’Neal, Dick Fuld, Jimmy Cayne, ?) don’t seem to have taken the easy route to citing subtle financial models as the cause of their downfall.