Archive for May, 2009

The verb “to modernize” is very ambiguous. Sometimes it means “to do things better”, other times it means “to remove those things and get rid of them altogether”, other times it just means “to make those things sellable and see if you can get some money out of them”. In this last case, “to modernize” [...]

Attention. Attention. French sociologist of science discovers that America is a statistical invention.

Financial stress testing is becoming a political issue (see “Bank objections delay strest tests” and “BofA and Citi in last push on stress tests”, Financial Times, May 1, May 3 2009). Accordingly, the very problem of the release and usage of the results of stress tests is put to the test: a leak to the [...]