I’m as excited as the next guy about the possibilities of “Big Data!” but possibly more excited about the opportunities presented by plain old “Modest Data”. I believe there is plenty of scope for useful analysis on fairly moderate data sets with the right approach and tools. I’d go as far as to say that…
Foreign person? Foreign company? Foreign trust? Local company owned by foreigners? Local company owned partly by foreigners? Foreign company owned by locals? Local company owned by locals with debt finance from foreigners? Â Local bank with foreign shareholders and repossessed properties? Local insurance company issuing policies to foreigners? BRICS bank? Foreigner married in community of property…
This reminded me a little of trying to come up with the “right” risk taxonomy or risk management framework. There are so many different ways to draw boundaries, none which is perfect and many which are acceptable and useful. Also, Star Wars.
An actuary I know once made me cringe by saying “It doesn’t matter how an Economic Scenario Generator is constructed, if it meets all the calibration tests then it’s fine. A machine learning black box is as good as any other model with the same scores.† The idea being that if the model outputs correctly…
I read Nazir Alli’s opinion piece on BDLive this morning. Unsurprisingly, he talks up tolling as the best way to fund roads. Now, I don’t have as strong a view as some that etolls are Universally Bad. Frankly, I also feel that many people who complain about etolls are still complaining about having to pay. The…
In respect for Nelson Mandela’s death and funeral, many retailers closed yesterday for the day. This Business Day article claims a R300m loss for the retail industry as a result. Except, no. Some fraction of those sales might be permanently lost, but the income hasn’t been spent and the cash still sits in shoppers’ pockets.…
URL shorteners are handy when space is limited, but each one adds another fatal point of failure. To make the point, if I want you to read about New Business Margin on Revenue. And by the way you should because it’s an important newish concept, the link will work provided your internet connection is working,…
Ok, it’s not exactly the Prisoner’s Dilemma, but it tastes the same. Members of prediction market Intrade, have to decide whether to cooperate or be selfish. The exchange is insolvent. It seems like the operator didn’t separate member money from its own money and then spent it. This basically makes it a ponzi scheme. It…
