„Don’t worry,“ the bright young man at a London private banking told us, „we maintain the highest levels of professionalism and use the most sophisticated tools of modern portfolio management.“

That was just what we were worried about. […] Handsome, well-dressed, well spoken in three different languages, he had spent years learning the principles of economics, finance and business management. His palaver to prospective clients was flawless. Yes, he said, the research department is keenly searching for alpha…but it knows that 80% of performance comes from careful asset allocation, which the bank’s strategists have calculated based on risk/return analyses going back a hundred years. The expected return from Japanese equities over the next five years, for example, will be precisely 7.56%…but with an anticipated volatility of 20.43%.

[…] They ought to give special parking places to anyone who studied business, economics or finance in the last 30 years. Higher education has lowered their I.Qs. Years of toil in academia have weakened their vision and taken the common sense right out of them.

A blind man could have seen the blow-up in sub-prime coming. But somehow, the geniuses missed it. What went wrong?

Quelle: Prometheus, With The Cuffs On

Recht hat er. Gesunder Menschenverstand, und viele Auswüchse zu laxer Geldpolitik wären null und nichtig. Einer der besten Artikel, den ich in den letzten Monaten über die Finanzwelt gelesen habe.