Word: meanings
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most significant risk in replacing the current bank CEOs is that the new people coming in may or may not be better selections than the people whom they replace. In many quarters this is considered a sort of governance recidivism. But, that does not mean that the argument is entirely flawed. Pandit, Thain and Willumstad did not do any better than their predecessors. As a matter of fact, they probably did much worse. They were given the specific tasks of ferreting out problems in the companies which they were picked to operate and fix them. Each one expressed optimism about...
...those who warn that danger is ahead - and to listen to those who argue that it is precisely the least expected catastrophe (a "black swan," as they are now known after Nassim Nicholas Taleb's 2007 book of that name) that can do the most damage. That does not mean we should all live, risk averse, cowering in a cave of our own making. It does mean that it behooves us to listen to those who, based on knowledge and insight, warn us of what might go wrong. There is no figure in myth more tragic than Cassandra, granted...
...Love may mean never having to say you're sorry to those you hold dear, but it turns out apologizing is a pretty good way of cheesing off your enemies. Just ask French Socialist politician Ségolène Royal, who's infuriating foes on the right and left alike by making apologies for President Nicolas Sarkozy, the man who beat her out for the Elysée two years...
Have you seen those dudes in Ratatat? They've got some nice hair. And by nice, we mean stringy and greasy. But it's understandable: they've got an alternative image to uphold, after...
...what does that actually mean, dumbed down? Whitney's question was specifically about Citi's $1.7 billion in investment-banking profits in Europe, and Kelly's eventual answer was basically just that business had been good. But bank financial statements are never that simple: Citi's overall investment-banking earnings were boosted by a $2.5 billion derivatives valuation adjustment "mainly due to the widening of Citi's CDS spreads." In somewhat dumbed-down but still utterly flummoxing language: credit-default swap (CDS) spreads represent the cost of insuring against Citi's default. That cost went up in the quarter...