UBS

Once again a "rogue" trader has misplaced $2 Billion.
That much money would indeed burn a hole in one's pocket, so it's easy to see how it happened.

I believe UBS was the entity behind the latest investment scheme my local bank ran by me. I was insulated by the fact that they use a financial counselor who is so perfectly bizarre ( he pronounces the name Crédit Suisse as "Credit Sue"... I can overlook the Americanization of "crédit", but to turn the French word "Suisse" (Swiss, or of Switzerland) into "sue" is way too goofy) that were he to offer me $10 for a fiver, I would probably decline.

Anyway, two billion is a big number. Everything is big numbers these days, especially when you put them into context. Ten million seems not so big a number at first, but when you put it in the context of a Wall Street bonus to one individual in a time of poverty, unemployment, and foreclosure, it suddenly becomes astronomical.

Megabytes became Gigabytes become Terabytes; trades are sent across the world at the speed of light - or slightly faster. Disasters grow in size and the length of time it takes to recover from them, and everywhere one looks, the black swan statistical outliers are nesting next to the egrets in the marsh.

When the Tower of Babel was built, the builders sought to be like God, but it was not a matter of the height of the building: to reach the heavens where - we suppose - God dwelled; ancient men were not as stupid as all that, even though we like to pretend they were; the Tower was a masterpiece of planning, design, magnitude, and complexity, and it was in this manner the builders of the ancient metropolis of Babel sought to emulate the Holy. 

However, they experienced a serious loss of control... things fell apart... their ancient stockmarket indices dropped 1,000 shekels in 10 minutes... the irrigation grid broke down...

...and the rest is history.

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