Old and new wisdom in finance

Given the date, I thought you’d all enjoy this refresher course in modern finance from Peter Sinclair, Professor of Economics at the University of Birmingham (as recommended by Willem Buiter, otherwise known as Financial Times blogger Maverecon).

Traditional

2003 - August 2007

Now

The First Law of Credit Markets: You can borrow…

if you can prove you don’t need to

anything

just possibly – if you are seen as a sound bank, that is

Uncovered Interest Parity:

May well hold, in time, on average

RIP

Reports of some new sightings

Aggregate value of assets x and y

= x+y

≥ Max{2x, 2y}

≤ Min{2x,2y}

Expected payoff from a financier’s gamble

Negative without inside information

Often positive, and with positive serial correlation

If I’m a bank, heads I win, tails the taxpayer loses

Solvency is….

terrain that you must never leave

an issue strictly for the nerds

in the eye of the beholder

The first law of prices is.…

there’s nothing for nothing

what’s dear today may be quite cheap: watch it rise further

come back to our website when it has been rebuilt

Risk is …

sold to those best able to bear it

effectively traded away to nothing

sold to those who understand it least

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