Print Story An insight into history
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By Merekat (Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 08:30:49 AM EST) (all tags)
I don't get the feeling I am living in momentous times.


As world markets crash and burn and money dries up (including probably all my investments), I still get up in the morning, brush my teeth, wake up in the shower, hunt for clean trousers and go to work. I still wonder what I shall cook, remind myself to pay the TV license, watch Top Gear and feed the cat. I can do nothing else. My existence must continue. There are still dustballs forming under the bed, no matter what the great and not-so-good of this world are doing.

As the Berlin Wall fell, as World Wars were declared, as the globe was circumnavigated, as the Normans invaded there were people doing the same as they always do. Most of us are invisible to history, even the modern style that eschews heros in favour of the normal. Most of our crap will not be excavated and analysed by earnest archaeologists hoping to understand the early 21st century diet.

We are nothing.

I can live with that.


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An insight into history | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
Depends where you're sitting by jump the ladder (4.00 / 1) #1 Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 09:13:05 AM EST
At work. As I sit next to a load of traders writing a counterparty risk system to measure their exposure to dodgy banks, the collapse of the Western financial system seems pretty damn real to me. I still clean my teeth etc though



You're writing one? by Dr H0ffm4n (2.00 / 0) #2 Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 11:01:58 AM EST
You know most trading platforms come with one?

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Yeah by codemonkey uk (4.00 / 1) #3 Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 11:11:24 AM EST
But none of them work, apparently.  Or we wouldn't be in this mess...

--- Thad ---
developer of ... ?
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Nowt wrong with the systems by jump the ladder (2.00 / 0) #5 Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 06:06:15 PM EST
Just the usual garbage in, garbage out.

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Risk systems by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #6 Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 06:41:41 PM EST
Are an embarassment to the profession.  I've only seen a few that I rated on all fronts, in ovber 12 years of working in financial IT.


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Not true. by wumpus (2.00 / 0) #7 Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 07:01:55 PM EST
The ones that work don't generate as much profit as the ones that ignore all that pesky risk.

Wumpus



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Not the piece of crap by jump the ladder (2.00 / 0) #4 Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 11:35:27 AM EST
Asset management trading system that they use here. It's not an investment bank, it's an asset mgt treasury operation.

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The risk system have limits. by Tonatiuh (2.00 / 0) #8 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 07:55:32 PM EST
They can't follow complex chains of CDSs and more complicated financial instruments that convert insurance against debt exposure in a big Vegas Casino.

Basically nobody has fuck idea of who is exposed to what (which makes the governments bailouts pointless, because we don't know the size of the problem. Conservative estimates are so scary that are not worth even mentioning).


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Historia: gigantesca zopilotera y un gran hedor. by Tonatiuh (2.00 / 0) #9 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 08:06:14 PM EST
"History is a great vulture fest and a big stink" - Tomas Mojarro.

The Spanish conveys much better what I  mean. Zopilote is a demeaning name for carrion birds, draw your own historic parallels.

In a place were vultures feast the mass of meat is anonymous, but at the end is formed by individuals.

Our individual names may be transparent to history, but that does not mean we are irrelevant. We may even choose not to from part of the pit where indolence and apathy are a delicious seasoning for the vultures' feast.

Real people (er, like me :-) ) are being affected. That will not change the course of history, but that does not mean we are not part of it.




Ah by Merekat (2.00 / 0) #10 Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 03:47:13 AM EST
I mean history, the academic discipline, not history, the passing of time and happening of things:)


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I see. by Tonatiuh (2.00 / 0) #11 Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 12:12:55 PM EST
OK, forget all about the  vultures thing, it was written under the influence of a very strong anti-flu medicine anyway....




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An insight into history | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback