The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Sunday, February 19, 2012

My pal Emanuel Derman profiled in the AFR

The always-good Jonathon Shapiro has published an excellent little profile of former Goldman Sachs MD, Emanuel Derman. Emanuel and I crossed-paths at GS, and have stayed in touch since. From Shapiro:

Derman says: “Your iPad works because someone understands Maxwell’s equations and quantum electrodynamics, and they can build something that does what you want when you hit a button. They use the same kind of math to describe options and markets.

“It looks the same but it’s based on a vague analogy which says stock prices behave like smoke diffusions, it’s not a description of reality. Whereas for Newton’s laws or Maxwell’s equations, that’s the way the world is.”
at 8:53 AM