This is the text of an article in the Washington Post by Dominic Basulto about last week’s events in the financial markets. Great stuff. When news first broke Thursday that JPMorgan’s credit derivatives portfolio had sustained a loss of $2 billion, and potentially as much as $5 billion, on trades gone awry, there was an [...]
Archive for the ‘Financial crisis’ Category
JP Morgan and the Price of Complexity
Posted in Accountability, Biology, Chaos, Economics, Evolution, Financial crisis, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Organisations, Self organisation, Strategy, Technology, Trade on May 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
What are leaders really for?
Posted in Accountability, Campaigns, Conflict and peace building, Evolution, Financial crisis, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Self organisation on December 7, 2011 | 5 Comments »
A continuing theme on this blog has been the issue of leadership. Many reports and studies call for it, reforms are seen as impossible without it, critical challenges will not be met without it, and we are all ready to point out the lack of it (in others, at least). Despite the fact that leadership [...]
New Scientist Briefing: Can ecosystems show how to fix the euro?
Posted in Biology, Economics, Financial crisis, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Networks, Public Policy, Technology, Trade on November 10, 2011 | 5 Comments »
The eurozone, like the rest of the world economy, is a complex networked system. That gives it properties economists rarely consider but which could help us understand the current crisis. This New Scientist ‘Science in Society’ Briefing examines the issues. What is a complex network? Complex networks have many interconnected components which influence each other’s [...]
What Does The Atlas of Economic Complexity Mean for Development?
Posted in Climate change, Economics, Evolution, Financial crisis, Innovation, Networks, Public Policy, Reports and Studies, Resilience, Technology, Trade on November 3, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard and Cesar Hidalgo of MIT (whose work I have blogged about previously here) have just published the deeply impressive Atlas of Economic Complexity. It is built around an innovative, network-based methodology for understanding economies and their potential for growth. It represents perhaps the most systematic and in-depth application of the ideas [...]
Complexity with a human face
Posted in Campaigns, Financial crisis, Leadership, Networks, Resilience, Self organisation on February 4, 2011 | 5 Comments »
A piece in yesterday’s New Scientist titled ‘Can Complexity Theory Explain Egypt’s Crisis?’ explores ideas of complexity in the context of the ongoing events in Egypt. It draws on the insights of two noted complexity thinkers – Yaneer Bar-Yam and Thomas Homer-Dixon. Excerpts are reproduced below with permission: Egyptians are the world’s biggest wheat importers and consumers, and [...]
The globalisation of vulnerability
Posted in Agriculture, Climate change, Conflict and peace building, Economics, Financial crisis, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Natural disasters, Organisations, Public Policy, Resilience on January 11, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Most analysts agree that globalisation has become more intensive and dramatic in recent decades because of advances in technology, communications, science and transportation. While it can be a catalyst for development and progress, globalisation also carries significant and increasing challenges for aid policy makers and practitioners alike. I: The new face of vulnerability? Recent years [...]
Predicting catastrophes – limits and possibilities
Posted in Conflict and peace building, Evolution, Financial crisis, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Natural disasters on November 24, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Tipping points are found in ecosystems, economies and even bodies. But they’re usually recognized in retrospect, when it’s too late for anything but regret. Now a growing body of research suggests there are telltale mathematical signals. If scientists can figure out how to detect them, they may be able to forecast tipping points ahead of [...]
Alan Greenspan – Closet Complexity Scientist?
Posted in Economics, Financial crisis, Innovation, Leadership, Public Policy, Resilience on November 8, 2010 | 2 Comments »
In one of his many speeches, Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the FRB, talked about “Monetary Policy under Uncertainty”. According to a rather mischievous article in the Post-Autistic Economics Review, he “expressed numerous ideas which could have come straight out of the mouth of a complexity economist.” The relevant quotes from the speech are highlighted below. First, [...]
An Interview with leading complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman
Posted in Biology, Economics, Financial crisis, Innovation, Technology on November 4, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Stuart Kaufmann, evolutionary biologist and an early recipient of a McArthur genius grant, was closely involved in the origins of the Sante Fe Institute – ground zero for many of today’s leading complexity theorists. Earlier this year he was interviewed by Joshua E Brown, and his thoughts make interesting reading for all those with an [...]
MDGs and theories of change
Posted in Accountability, Financial crisis, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, MDGs, Public Policy on October 5, 2010 | 5 Comments »
The Millennium Development Goals have been succinctly described as “the world’s biggest promise”. The last few weeks have seen a veritable mountain of reports, papers, policy papers, blogs and tweets on reaching the 10 year mark and the imminent approach of 2015, the anticipated end-date of the MDGs. Despite the sheer volume of material and amassed intellect that [...]
