Latest Posts
Underwriting is a form of security
Reading Bruce Schneier’s new book Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive (reviewed here) made me think about the management of a life insurance company using a security lens. And underwriting is the part of a life insurance company’s management that lends itself most to a securityContinue Reading
Monday Links
A roundup of the links that I’ve found interesting this week: Why the Rules of Language Are Both Arbitrary and Essential, Steven Pinker on the false fronts in the language wars between those who argue that the language has defined rules, and you are either correct or incorrect, and thoseContinue Reading
Women on Boards: update on research
When I was in Norway last year, I took the opportunity to research the experience there of women on Boards – had the sky fallen in after all companies had to appoint at least 40% female Boards? (the quick answer is that nearly everyone in Norway thinks it was aContinue Reading
Monday links
Here’s a roundup of interesting links I’ve seen this week: The speed of light is too slow! New Scientist article about traders choosing microwaves to transmit trading instructions ahead of fibre optic cable – light is slowed by a significant amount by the cable. Giving people permission to fail –Continue Reading
APRA releases final Capital Standards with lots to read
In one of the major milestones of the review of Capital Standards for Australian insurers, this week APRA released many of the final Standards, with some further draft changes to other Standards that will also because of the review. Most of the changes had been foreshadowed as part of theContinue Reading
Book Review: Liars and Outliers, by Bruce Schneier
Today’s book review is Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive, by Bruce Schneier. Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security guru (he even has his own internet meme). He started out as an expert on cryptography, but he now has much wider security interests. Liars and OutliersContinue Reading
Future of Financial Advice
At the Financial Services Forum last week one of the big questions was about the future of financial advice. This is also known as FOFA, which is what the government is calling it. The changes to the nature of financial advice were the backdrop to many of the presentations IContinue Reading
Financial Services Forum
I’ve just come back from the Actuaries Institute’s biennial Financial Services Forum; a forum for actuaries and other professionals in the financial services industry dealing with wealth management, financial planning, life insurance, banking and risk management. I’m hoping to post in more detail about some of the topics that interestedContinue Reading
Book Review: Before the Lights go out: Conquering the Energy Crisis before it conquers us
Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us, by Maggie Koerth-Baker is about energy management and the future in the US. Koerth-Baker’s book is about the energy crisis that is coming, and what the US should do about it. In her view, there are twoContinue Reading
Leaving the office at 5.30 to have dinner with your kids
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, always leaves the office at 5.30 so that she can have dinner with her kids at 6 (via Laura at 11d). I’m pretty sure that her commute is not like the average commute of the working mother of young children (bluemilk nails it as usual), andContinue Reading