We will be years dissecting the financial meltdown, but the cause was certainly not the lack of the intellects that developed this disaster. We applied the minds of brilliant scientists to create financial models that ignored the human side of economics and grossly underestimated or ignored the dynamics of probability. This created a false sense of security for a leverage that was incredibly risky.

Not everything that is important can be measured and not everything that can be measured is important. Many bright people and companies were paid big money to believe things that were not true.

Intelligence does not overcome conflicts of interest, greed and hubris. In fact it often empowers it. Sound principles will trump intelligence every time.

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