When The Market Comes to the Model
by R. Passov Modeling in finance is done through the lens of mathematics. To put something into a model where you are not guided by observable constants, such as the speed of light, requires assumptions. With so many models off the shelf a common understanding of assumptions is slipping by. If you go far enough…
What We Can Do
by R. Passov Recently, I watched a YouTube of a talk given by Jennifer Doudna. This past May, in front of some her UC Berkeley colleagues, Doudna shared, “a story … about some research … that led in an unexpected direction … ” producing “ … some science that has profound implications going forward…but also…
On Healthcare and Insurance
by R. Passov The economics of health insurance is of particular importance today. Health insurance has become a major issue of public policy. Some form of national health insurance is very likely to be enacted within the next few years. —Martin Feldstein 1 Fifty years ago, when healthcare expenditures were a mere 6% of US GDP,…
Ali at his Greatest
by R. Passov The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) provides a short history of boxing. It’s an ancient sport. The Romans fought each other wearing cestus, sometimes to the death. Before them so the Greeks. In the fourth century AD, tired of the violence, the Romans outlaw the sport. According to the BBBofC, fourteen…
Thoughts on California
by R. Passov When I arrived in California, when I was born, I joined 15 million inhabitants, including my parents. They were part of a long wave of predominately eastern European descendants who came in such numbers as to pull west much of post-WWII American culture. In the year I found California, 16 million people…
How I Became a Drug Dealer
by R. Passov Johnny spoke softly in a voice just past the threshold of manhood. His smile, mistaken for charm, was longing. I could see the pentimento of the child still in him. One day I watched a conversation that confirmed my suspicions. Johnny had returned from somewhere Big Greg had sent him. He danced…
Searching for Perfection
by R. Passov As the clouds of WWII darkened Austria, Kurt Gödel, the greatest logician of modern times, at Einstein’s urging, brought his two magnificent proofs to Princeton. There he would remain for almost forty years, never mentoring a graduate student, rarely lecturing, adding only one substantial but incomplete proof to the cannon of math. Mildly…
When I was Twelve, I liked to Steal
by Richard Passov Stealing gave me currency with the older kids who hung in front of the apartments on weekend nights. Anything I got from our local supermarket was of value, especially cough syrup with codeine and flasks of rum or vodka. One of the older boys, who was soon to die in a train accident, showed…
Is There a Word for Reverse Anthropomorphism?
by Richard Passov Milton Friedman, in his essay The Methodology of Positive Economics[1], first published in 1953, often reprinted, by arguing against burdening models with the need for realistic assumptions helped lay the foundation for mathematical economics. The virtue of a model, the essay argues, is a function of how much of reality it can ignore…
Finding my Work Ethic
by Richard Passov Our uniform was a shirt tucked into jeans. Sandi stretched the smallest size over well-proportioned breasts, her black bra peeking through a run of buttons. Mine hung long in the sleeves and fell over my waist. I was trying to work my way through college in the kitchen of a teaching hospital on…
A Lesson in Brand Management
Others’ Thoughts on Science and the Humanities
by Richard Passov Researching the history of a particular computer has taken me along an arc spanning George Boole to Claude Shannon. By some measures the works of these men combine to give us our modern, programmable computer. Shannon recast Boole’s Calculus of Thought into the modern symbolism for computer logic. And while that work has…
Thoughts on Cars
by Richard Passov Robert Gordon is the Stanley G. Harris Professor of Social Sciences at Northwestern University. In a well-received book, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, Gordon ‘…contributes to resolving one of the most fundamental questions about American economic history’ by providing ‘… a comprehensive and unified explanation of why productivity growth was so fast…
The Moon and a Computer
George Boole and the Calculus of Thought
by Richard Passov On the night of December 8th, 1864, George Boole, 49 years of age, in the grips of pneumonia, expired. He left a wife, Mary, and five daughters. Unfortunately, Mary had always carried two of his beliefs: the health benefits of long walks and the healing powers of homeopathic remedies. Late in a…