Searching for inspiration on financial risk

December 13, 2011

Two people, two sources.

Planes

Deus ex Macchiato has a post called “Planes not bridges” in which it is suggested that learning from air traffic investigators makes sense.  The logic is that a large component of plane accidents is caused by human (mis)beliefs.  So perhaps finance can imitate air safety in reducing the frequency of crashes.

Clouds

Meanwhile Andy Haldane in New Scientist (gated version) looks to meteorology as an example of better ways to see a complex process.  If we can forecast global weather, we should be able to forecast financial weather.

The first sentence is:

IT IS said that economists engage in financial forecasting to make astrologers look good.

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