That I find more solace in quants than relational databases has always been true and that my view of RDBMS building remains at odds with many of the Kiddie Koders who run their various asylums, are not excuses for pandering to the knuckleheads who very nearly destroyed western civilization.  There's just no forgiving that.  And is the main reason I've little interest in doing finance quant work.

It remains rare for the business press to print anything remotely discourteous to the quants, as if anyone else would pay them so much to do so much damage should they stamp their little feet and leave.  Well, leave it to the Times to unleash its peashooter.  The pea was this little bit of text:

"Banks considered the leverage ratio a blunt tool, an insult to all the investments they had made in the last decade to create sophisticated risk management systems, as well as a threat to potential profits and payouts to top bankers."

Read the whole article for some additional context, although the arrogance isn't highlighted.  I'll do that.  These are the very knuckleheads who shot the rest of us in the gut, and they want the right to continue to do so.  Remember, borrowers can only spend what savers supply; national borders really don't matter.  While leverage can be used to inflate the profits of individual banks, or even the whole financial sector, leverage doesn't create real resources.

And, if you've not done so recently, check out the quotes at the top of the blog.  Birds of a feather, and all that.