Institutional Investor (February 15)
“While there are some types of AI that humans can comprehend, there are others that, because of their complexity and high dimensionality, are beyond the ken of human intelligence…. Yet because of a deep-seated industry bias that investment results must be explainable, investors have been slow to accept the superhuman capabilities of advanced AI and, as a result, are failing to consider unique sources of alpha that could provide better investment outcomes.”
Tags: Advanced, AI, Alpha, Capabilities, Complexity, Comprehend, Dimensionality, Explainable, Human intelligence, Industry bias, Investment results, Investors, Slow, Superhuman
Newsweek (December 2)
“The failure to conduct basic due diligence of Bankman-Fried is after all what led to his ability to take so many people for a ride. That refusal to investigate reflects the complexity of the crypto industry and the difficulty involved in tracking the flow of funds and risk on the blockchain. But it’s also further evidence of how the media gets hoodwinked by Robin Hood narratives, something many technology leaders have learned to leverage well.”
Tags: Bankman-Fried, Blockchain, Complexity, Crypto industry, Difficulty, Due diligence, Evidence, Failure, Funds, Hoodwinked, Investigate, Media, Risk, Robin Hood, Tracking
Financial Times (November 11)
The bankruptcy of “Sam Bankman-Fried’s business empire includes billions of dollars of illiquid venture capital investments… including exposure to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boring Company.” The giant sprawl of his “venture capital portfolio will add to the complexity of the insolvency proceedings, which itself includes more than 130 companies controlled by Bankman-Fried. FTX’s collapse is among the most dramatic failures in the crypto industry not just this year, but since the creation of bitcoin more than a decade ago.”
Tags: Bankman-Fried, Bankruptcy, Bitcoin more, Business empire, Complexity, Crypto, Exposure, Failure, FTX, Illiquid, Insolvency, Investments, Musk, SpaceX, Sprawl, VC
Reuters (November 10)
“The common element” in the U.S. and Europe “is a revolt, greater or lesser in extent, against rapid change, against liberal elites and against a loss of identity – white, in the main, but also of settled communities of past waves of immigrants. Populists, right to signal these concerns, are wrong to claim that answers are simple. But arguments of complexity are, in an impatient time, suspect. Divisions, not only in the United States, presently deepen.”
Tags: Arguments, Common, Complexity, Divisions, Europe, Identity, Immigrants, Impatient, Liberal elites, Populists, Rapid change, Revolt, U.S.
The Economist (August 11)
“Today’s tax systems are not only marred by the bewildering complexity and loopholes that have always afflicted taxation; they are also outdated. That makes them less efficient, more unfair and more likely to conflict with a government’s priorities. The world needs to remake tax systems so that they are fit for the 21st century.”
Tags: Bewildering, Complexity, Conflict, Efficient, Loopholes, Outdated, Taxation, Unfair
Reuters (September 15)
“Business owners who are trying to get back on track after hurricanes Harvey and Irma now face a different sort of challenge: trying to recoup lost income from their insurers.” Some experts predict approximately $70 billion in property losses from flooding in Texas alone. But recouping insured property loses is much easier than lost income. “Exclusions in the fine print of policies, along with waiting periods and disagreements over how to measure a company’s lost income, make business interruption claims among the trickiest in an industry renowned for complexity”
Tags: Business, Business interruption, Claims, Complexity, Exclusions, Flooding, Harvey, Hurricanes, Insurers, Irma, Lost income, Owners, Policies, Property losses, Texas
The Economist (June 3)
“It is the fourth time in a year that BA’s computer systems have suffered a major crash. And debilitating IT breakdowns are becoming increasingly common” across an industry with particularly high IT demands. “The sheer quantity and complexity of the data they handle make airlines particularly vulnerable to IT disasters.” And yet, “in 2015 airlines spent 2.7% of their revenues on IT, half the norm across all industries and a lower share even than hotels.” The pressure to pressure to cut costs is strong, given the industry’s harsh competition. The cost of an IT melt down, however, is much greater. Airlines must “refrain from pruning investment in IT too far.”
Tags: Airlines, BA, Complexity, Computer, Crash, Data, Investment, IT, Quantity, Systems
The Atlantic (November Issue)
China is “intensifying efforts to remake the maritime borders of” the South and East China Seas, “just as surely as Russia is remaking Europe’s political map in places like Crimea and Ukraine—only here the scale is vastly larger, the players more numerous, and the complexity greater.”
Tags: Borders, China, Complexity, Crimea, East China Sea, Europe, Map, Maritime, Russia, South China Sea, Ukraine
New York Times (January 20)
“A detailed report put out by JPMorgan Chase last week on how it lost $6 billion from ill-fated trading in 2012 should be required reading for policy makers and financial executives. The 129-page document serves as a case study of how excessive complexity and poor oversight still threaten many parts of the financial system more than four years after the failure of Lehman Brothers.”
Tags: Complexity, Financial system, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, London, Oversight, Trading loss
New York Times (October 12)
“Bank bailouts were supposed to be followed by financial reform to limit the banks’ destructive power. Instead, bailed-out banks are bigger than ever and have resisted reforms to limit their size and complexity.” Fortunately, there are some promising signs of change. The most recent arrived in a report from a committee led by Erkki Liikanen for the European Commission. Should the recommendations be approved “the lack of progress, however, may yet give way to change.”
Tags: Bailouts, Banks, Complexity, Erkki Liikanen, European Commission, Reform, Size
