Wisdom in fragments

Crime, for those living in poverty, can become a business. Much like any other capitalist enterprise, their business further exacerbates inequality in society. The poor feel aggrieved by inequality - they exist in a world where they are disproportionately unrewarded for their input into the economy.

Unknown.

Crime itself can increase inequality. A doubling in crime increases the Gini coefficient by 3% to 4%. When crime increases twofold the share of the rich tercile drops by 1.3%, and the share of the population in the poorest tercile increases.

Unknown.

You have to understand, for instance, that in my lifetime until I was fifty or so- I had not witnessed any period without inflation of twenty or thirty percent, and sometimes one hundred percent.

Brazilian Diplomat & Foreign Minister under Lula's Presidency

First and foremost was the consolidation of democracy. Second was the stabilisation of the economy. Thirdly- and probably most importantly- was the ability of Brazil to deal with a problem we inherited from colonial times- inequality.

Brazilian Diplomat & Foreign Minister under Lula's Presidency

In the case of Brazil, one of the most important things is the huge ethnic and cultural mixture which makes us a country with dynamism, vibrancy, and the ability to understand the psychology of other nations.

Brazilian Diplomat & Foreign Minister under Lula's Presidency

One thing that really helped us was NOT following the IMF prescription, and hence I think the fact that we insisted on having growth (alongside stability) was something that made for a big change in Brazil.

Brazilian Diplomat & Foreign Minister under Lula's Presidency

This is not just about the elephant- it's about there being different types of elephants. Looking at the market in simplistic distribution perspectives misses the true effect, threat and risk of large movements and upcoming changes.

Physics professor studying complex systems, crowd behavior, and social networks.

The 'black swan' doesn't appear very often in coin-toss land but in agent based complex systems land, it appears quite a lot.

Physics professor studying complex systems, crowd behavior, and social networks.

It's absolutely true that a lot of the time the market is indistinguishable from a coin toss- and we all know that… However, when the system is under some stress, when the market is undergoing changes, the coin toss model just doesn't work.

Physics professor studying complex systems, crowd behavior, and social networks.

The actual actions of the people in the market are the things that determine what happens next within the market.

Physics professor studying complex systems, crowd behavior, and social networks.

The way the police treat black people is like we're nothing.

The police never talk to us, they ignore us, they don't think we're human in this area.

Probably most importantly was the ability of Brazil to deal with a problem we inherited from colonial times- inequality.

Brazilian Diplomat & Foreign Minister under Lula's Presidency

All conflicts are different with their particular history and reasons. I think that inequality within societies and between regions has become a key cause for conflict, exacerbated by rapid information dissemination, as people are now more aware of inequalities.

Unknown.

We compute some level of default and losses because of those defaults- and perform IRR calculations to create yields and then we haircut it some more because, in truth, we have no idea!

Looking at the bond market to provide you protection from inflation is a fools game. If you are really worried about inflation- you have to buy stocks.