While we’re on the topic of economics, here’s an interesting graphic I found at The Big Picture blog – What we see here is that, although China and Japan do have substantial holdings of U.S. government debt, they are far from being majority stakeholders.
Archive for the ‘Financial Mathematics’ Category
National Debt
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on January 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Problem with the Euro
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on January 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
For those who are economically minded, Paul Krugman has a great article in the upcoming Times Sunday Magazine (Jan. 16) on the creation of the euro and the benefits and difficulties involved in this process. At its heart, his comparison of Ireland and Nevada highlights the issues very clearly, Climate, scenery and history aside, the [...]
The Black Swan
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on September 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve finally gotten around to reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb‘s The Black Swan. I’m about halfway through and I’m enjoying it very much. It’s part math, part economics, part philosophy, and part quirky anecdotes. I’m not sure what the rest of the book will be like and in the spirit of the book itself I am [...]
The Quants
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on March 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Last February, I wrote about the current financial crisis and the role that mathematical trading strategies played in the meltdown. I recently finished reading The Quants by Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Patterson. In The Quants Patterson tells the story of computer trading strategies at the big NY investment banks and various hedge funds. He [...]
The Financial Crisis – One Year Later
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on October 6, 2009 | 1 Comment »
This isn’t really mathematical, but there has been a flurry of articles recently about the financial crisis – both its lingering effects and the day to day issues it raised last September in the Federal Government and the large, money center banks and invesment banks. Andrew Ross Sorkin has an article in the new Vanity [...]
ORMATYC
Posted in Financial Mathematics, Math Education, Polynomial Roots on May 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I went to Lincoln City this past weekend for the ORMATYC Conference. ORMATYC is the Oregon Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges and is a part of the larger group AMATYC, the American Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges. Just about every year, we have a conference in Lincoln City – this is the fifth [...]
Financial Mathematics
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on February 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
“Because the math is really complicated people assume it must be right.” — Nigel Goldenfeld, whose company sells derivatives software.(from a NYTimes article March 9, 2009) The cover article in this month’s Wired magazine has to do with the applications of mathematics to finance and investing. Specifically, it talks about what is called the Gaussian [...]
Benoit Mandelbrot on the economic crisis
Posted in Applications, Financial Mathematics on October 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here is a link to a video of Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of fractals and chaos math, together with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, discussing the economic crisis on PBS. Click here for link to video © Karthik Narayanaswami
