At the Actuaries Institute Financial Services Forum, in May, I’m running a Panel discussion entitled Is MOS Accounting Responsible for the Woes of the Retail Life Industry? This post gives some background to the question and why it seemed a good topic for a panel discussion. What are the woes of theContinue Reading
Bayseian probability seems quite obvious once it is explained, but it is incredibly counterintuitive. Using Bayesian methods is one of the “thinking slow” methods that Daniel Kahneman in Thinking Fast and Slow identifies – very few people can do it intuitively. So via Barry Ritholtz, here is a great example ofContinue Reading
The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life, by Uri Gneezy and John List When I discovered this book, I realised it was the perfect book for this blog. A book about behavioural economics, which also examines gender and other discrimination through an economic lens. WhatContinue Reading
A few months ago, I posted about some press actuaries had received about their crystal balls proving inadequate in the life insurance industry. Well the news hasn’t been getting any better. Recent reports from two of Australia’s major life reinsurers have continued the bad news. Most recently, APRA released theirContinue Reading
I went to see Mrs Warren’s Profession, by George Bernard Shaw, at the Sydney Theatre Company this week. A very enjoyable evening, but of more interest to the readers of this blog is Miss Warren’s profession: ‘I shall set up chambers in the City, and work at actuarial calculations. Last MayContinue Reading
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail but Some Don’t, by Nate Silver. Nate Silver is now an election blogger for the New York Times, but started out doing baseball statistics in his spare time while working for KPMG. That became PECOTA, a system for forecasting the performance and careerContinue Reading
So far I haven’t managed to kill the entire world population… but I’m getting there. Plague Inc is a strategy game in which you “must bring about the end of human history by evolving a deadly, global Plague whilst adapting against everything humanity can do to defend itself.” It’s aContinue Reading
This week I was lucky enough to attend the launch of UN Women’s Spring Campaign: Don’t be a Bystander: Say No to Violence against Women. As befits an actuarial blog, here are some statistics from the 2005 Australian Physical Safety Survey: since the age of 15, two percent of women andContinue Reading
The Stronger Super reforms are the biggest change to superannuation in Australia since the introduction of the superannuation guarantee 20 years ago. The changes are aimed at improving the integrity of the superannuation system, and to provide a better deal for super members who do not manage their own funds.Continue Reading
This week there was an article in the NY Times (in the fashion and style section, but that’s another story) asking whether Dads are taking over on the home front. It was prompted by some census statistics that there are now 176,000 dads in the US who have left the workforceContinue Reading