Seriously, you aren't joking?? My God, they are UFB!! The bu$h/cheney maladministration strikes again. Please, GET THE F u ck OUT, NOW. This is really just off the scale.

Without knowing whether Alix was a cassandra or not, I have to disagree with this statement: "Why they'd make someone their chief risk officer and then not listen to him about risks is a mystery, but I suppose it's possible. Just not all that likely."

You have basically two constituents whispering contrary advice into a financial company CEO's ears. The risk managers are always saying, "be prudent, have a higher capital reserve, lower leverage, etc." The traders are always saying, "dude, I have this sweet strategy we should try... sure it's risky, but the returns will be mindblowing." Then the CEO has another constituency, the shareholders, who are saying, "If you fail to have returns equal to or better than your competitors, we are going to fire you." So who does he listen to? The shareholders, who have his nuts in a vise, and the traders, who are offering him high-return strategies. He downplays those nopey mopes from the risk management department.

So Alix could have been a great risk manager, for all I know. But in the end, he didn't make the actual decisions about how much risk to take on. The CEO did.

Failing upwards...mind boggling.

I think this is more like those situations where the FBI turns a former criminal into an agent because the former criminal knows more about the subject than anyone else does.

I see DeCaprio in the lead when the movie comes out.

More news from the alter-reality based upside down backwards crazy world.

This is the sort of thing that has continually happened under W's watch. I knew when he pushed the bailout there would be a tape revealed of him joking at a dinner party about his investments being just fine (it was actually ridiculously lavish vacations for the heads of the bailout recipients this time). It's like they have no tact what so ever. Constantly making "retarded persons'" jokes in the presence of mothers with special needs children.

Insult after insult, and you know it is on purpose. Anyone with half a brain would have looked at this clowns resume and filed it (read: trashed it), but in the GOP and this admin, he's first for an interview.

One of the guys who wrote Dow 36,000, James Glassman, already has a job in the Bush State Department. As far as I know, Hassett's still available and working at the American Enterprise Institute.

In corporations like Bear Stearns, and in most corporations not like Bear Stearns, anybody who's job title includes the word "risk" is automatically a Cassandra. We can be highly competent, extremely thorough, and even repeatedly and demonstrably right, but we rarely have any actual influence.

At the end of the day, the financial officers wave away even the best risk analyses if the implications are a reduction in opportunity or an increase in cost.

In corporations like Bear Stearns, and in most corporations not like Bear Stearns, anybody who's job title includes the word "risk" is automatically a Cassandra. We can be highly competent, extremely thorough, and even repeatedly and demonstrably right, but we rarely have any actual influence.

At the end of the day, the financial officers wave away even the best risk analyses if the implications are a reduction in opportunity or an increase in cost.

Actually James Glassman's Dow 36,000 co-author Kevin Hassett has been advising the McCain campaign. Hopefully he'll be available for new employment within a couple of days.

Let's spark the bonfire, get the torches and pitchforks out, and get on with it for this person whom none of you knows, doing a job none of you knows anything about. Burn him at the stake, and remember to feel good about it. Go on -- you've earned this outrage.

In corporations like Bear Stearns, and in most corporations not like Bear Stearns, anybody who's job title includes the word "risk" is automatically a Cassandra. We can be highly competent, extremely thorough, and even repeatedly and demonstrably right, but we rarely have any actual influence.

Risk managers are "the reality based community" in many companies. Prophets in their own land who go over like a turd in a punchbowl.

Is this like the star wars deal where the powers that be really are evil.
Is there anything that the Bush administration does that's A. right and B. Competant.

Second all the other comments about risk management. I'm on the other side of the trader/risk manager wall, and I have no doubt that he raised questions early on. When the hedge fund Amaranth failed, it was widely known in the industry that the risk control group had been yelling about traders going above their allocations, only to be ignored. Their alums are quite respected.

I worked for a man who had been the CFO at Ivan Boesky Financial when he founded his own company one of his guiding principles was that everyone would have a voice. When he was at Boesky he was the CFO and had no ability to challenge Boesky or affect strategy. I don't think this is unusual on Wall Street -- lots of positions are for show. Still one person calls all the shots.

Ugh. Hilzoy, I love ya, really I do. But you've gotta calm down on this emotional stuff.

Would you suggest that companies should not hire hackers to work on security? That anyone who has been a drug user/dealer is unsuitable for the vice squad?

Now, I get it that you want to punish this guy. He's not a sympathetic character. But, to the extent that he has an understanding of what went wrong and has insights that might help catch future problems before they get so bad, I say sure, hire him.

Maybe he's not the right choice. Maybe he's an idiot or a crony and has no interest or ability in this area. But it's crazy to suggest that punishing his wrongdoing takes precedence over using his knowledge.

You need to enjoy this one:

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/1996-10-20/