The Coder Behind the Mortgage Meltdown

axjms writes "New York Magazine has a confessional/abdication from the man who wrote the software that turns mortgages into bonds and those nasty little things called CMOs. An interesting first-person account from a coder whose work reached far beyond what he or anyone could have anticipated."

bomb?

[robvangelder]

Joe Public: What happen ?
Coder: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Joe Public: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Joe Public: It's you !!
Wall Street Fat Cat: How are you gentlemen !!
Wall Street Fat Cat: All your base are belong to us.

Re:This topic is too hot to handle.

[ColdWetDog]

Wasn't it John Kenneth Gailbraith (an economist) who stated that "If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error"?

We've been Osinski'd....

Re:bomb?

[interkin3tic]

Missing a "Where's the beef" joke here.

Re:Red?

[hezekiah957]

Until you de-redified it. Thanks.

Fixed that for you

Sorry guys, it was me....

[syousef]

....I started world war II, even though I wasn't born yet. World war I. Me again. I messed up the decimal point. I hate that. I always do that. Oh and that devasting flu epedemic that killed more people than the war. me again. The rise of aids. I'm afraid that was my friend Jim. Excuse me please I have to go take my little red pills.

Re:This topic is too hot to handle.

[Brian Gordon]

I blame IP pirates undermining the entertainment industry.

Re:Sorry guys, it was me....

[khallow]

Hey, syousef, could I pick up responsibility for the Black Death, this weekend? I need a good pick up line. Promise to return it, good as new, Monday morning!

Re:bomb?

[__aaclcg7560]

Wall Street Fat Cat: All your base are belong to Uncle Sam.
Joe Public: Oh, God, not again.

Re:Sorry guys, it was me....

[phorest]

I have no sympathy, though pleased to meet you, devil.

Re:Red?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is to alert the First Posters to get ready.

Re:Red?

[RDW]

'The red means that it's "in the future" and being seen by a subscriber. For some reason they've been showing up for a few seconds to normal users too.'

That gives me a great idea! Why not devise some sort of complex financial instrument that nobody understands, which effectively bets the entire economy on the future colour of Slashdot articles? It would be no sillier than what happened over the last decade, and pretty easy to implement if we can come up with a single neat formula that seems to give correct predictions if you don't look too hard. Speaking of which, I thought we were still blaming this guy:

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant?currentPage=all [wired.com]

Re:Red?

[pwfffff]

Ah, Slashdot: where not even your made-up, bullshit words are safe from the grammar Nazis.

Blame IT

[cbass377]

Yeah right. They always blame IT.

Re:This topic is too hot to handle.

[ColdWetDog]

Are you trying to say this ought to be a screenplay?

All you missed were the explosions.

Re:If was the Li's formula

[xrayspx]

So we go back and kill Carl Gauss. Then my CRTs won't be all ghosty and my house would still be worth something.

Re:This topic is too hot to handle.

[homer_ca]

Here's one: I can rent an apartment that has everything I need for half to 3/4's of the price of a home.

Living in an apartment with only enough space for your needs?!? Why do you hate America?