I was sad to read the Harry Mulisch obituary in this morning’s Times. I read two of his books, The Assault, made into a best…
Comments closedAuthor: Emanuel Derman
If you want another reason to fly Porter Air to Toronto from Newark and back, in addition to their downtown Toronto airport, could it be…
Comments closedAt work this morning I found myself thinking about calibration. Lately, some people have tried to debunk the idea of calibrating financial models, but I…
Comments closedI noticed: If you are running in your sneakers and you become aware of a rhythmic flapping on the top of your right shoe, you…
Comments closedThe financial crisis of 2007-2008 was caused by the global savings glut. What caused that? According to Krugman, it was The Asian currency crisis of…
Comments closedOne of the most useful things a person can know about himself is where he or she begins and where other people end. If you…
Comments closedDespite globalization, New York’s denizens still fondly remember the countries they came from. After the fall of North Korea, in 2015, many upper-class North Koreans…
Comments closedKoestler on Newton “What he achieved was rather like an explosion in reverse. When a projectile blows up, its shiny smooth symmetrical body is shattered…
Comments closedI was thinking about the futility of low interest rates and easy credit as the cure for everything and a Yiddish proverb my parents used…
Comments closedMy investigations into Die Antwoord led me once again to the topic of vulgarity. Die Antwoord claim to sing Zef, which turns out to be…
Comments closedAbout six months ago my nephew in South Africa sent me a link to what he warned me was a rude video. I took a…
Comments closed__________ I have carried around in my electronic filofax for years a quote that apparently comes from Hegel that says “The history of the world…
Comments closedI recently entered a competition to create “a pithy ad” for the New York Review of Books Classifieds, and won a half-bottle of distinguished wine…
Comments closedOnce upon a time a lady who loved animals took a vacation at an upscale island hotel, part of a chain offering cheap promotional rates…
Comments closedDefinition 7: That thing is called free which exists from the necessity of its nature alone, and is determined to act by itself alone. But…
Comments closedThis is the text of an interview I had on Edge: Breaking The Cycle www.edge.org……
Comments closedWatching that interrogation of the bankers at the Senate hearings, I had the feeling that this is the way karma works in the universe. Everybody…
Comments closedThe big quant boom began in the mid-’80s, when investment firms started attracting venerable names like Emanuel Derman, a South African-born physicist described by Patterson…
Comments closedIn the last couple of decades drugstore chains (Duane Reade and CVS) and bookstore chains (Barnes & Noble and Borders) have taken over Manhattan. There…
Comments closedOne of the bugbears of my life is (other) people who behave inconsistently, who say, in effect, without batting an eyelash or turning a hair,…
Comments closedThis morning I walked up Columbus Ave on my way to work and passed a Danskin store that had a sign outside that said “Seized…
Comments closedThe other day I wanted to look up some statistics on certain stocks — volatility, correlation with the S&P, etc. I went to yahoo/finance and…
Comments closedI was on an airplane yesterday and was reading the NYR of Books, where the personals are always amusing (Masculin-Feminin) and mostly unrealistic. I like…
Comments closedThe Great Wall The commander-in-chief?so you?ve heard?has begun a mission to fix the system, directly from his office, for us, the citizens in all the…
Comments closed“His great discoveries were like exquisitely carved marble statues falling from out of the sky, one after another. He seemed to be able to conjure…
Comments closedSouth Africa is multi-talented in the sporting field, from women’s 800m runners to football, and I have been catching up on the latest in the…
Comments closedI had a fantasy in which the Fed and the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) switched roles. If a bank failed at 9 a.m. one morning…
Comments closedCape Town, like all of South Africa, is in the throes of preparing for the World Cup in June. Everything is much more spruced up…
Comments closedThe Hemlock Society Updated Alexa Joel, according to newspapers in South Africa where I currently am (2009), tried to kill herself with an overdose of…
Comments closedTalk delivered at Bloomberg on Tuesday Nov 24th, 2009: Fischer Black and the Financial Crisis: Rising Above The Noise I have been working for the…
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