This podcast discusses the benefits of taking a risk from a perspective that is life-affirming.  The antidote for risk-taking is "you can never be too careful" which has sucked out the mental health of so much of our population.  Let's get out there and chase your dreams by taking some risk.

Clusters are found in abundance in London.  So how can competitors operate within a cluster were written (or unwritten) rules require everyone to collaborate?  In the financial markets, derivative exchanges manage the risk of their participants as a collective.  The risk profile is quite similar.  One bad apple is manageable, but two or more can be catastrophic.  People change their mind and make broad brush decisions that can destroy a cluster.

This podcast covers the titular Ponzi and his financial scheme as well as Pyramids of the Tupperware party variety.  Then we talk about Bernie Madoff who had the consummate establishment persona and was not afraid of swindling a large slice of the New York elites.

This podcast the cycle a stock goes through when the price of its shares becomes a large multiple of its capacity to generate income.  The current market is at the same insane levels that we have seen in the last two decades.  The subsequent fallout seeks to push the stock back down to a level that attracts new value-based investors.  In the case of many dot.com companies, the value was zero.  Wonder how this reflects on cryptocurrencies?

(the title is lifted from the 1841 book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds)

This podcast discussed why scamming works as it exploits several human psyches and frailties around their perception of their worth relative to others.  We continue with how banks have to deal with the biggest fraud of all;  money-laundering of criminals ill-gotten gains.

Most policy and decision-makers struggle with the outside world due to its complexity and non-linearity of the risk factors that impact our lives.  We discuss how people simplify this world through the use of the spreadsheet.  We discuss, as an example, how purchasers of restaurants use their spreadsheet to eek out as much value right up to the point their paying customers notice.  We end by talking about the law of unintended consequences that led to the 1700s gin craze.

This podcast captures some history of how artificial intelligence came about, where it has enormous potential but also where its value is restrictive.

Welcome to Season 8 of RPW.  This podcast covers the disaster around the collapse of Archego that prompted several banks to declare multi-billion-dollar losses. We introduce that listener to Prime Brokerage and its derivative version Total Return Swap and rekindles the podcast's love (or hate) affair with big piggies.

This podcast discusses the introduction of the risk governance framework known as "Three Lines of Defence" which is the latest and most effective manifestation of risk governance in banks etc that enforces other considerations such as "should we" as opposed to "can we".  This brings an end to the seventh series of RPW.

The incident of the Ever Given container ship is both a surprise and predictable.  This podcast talks about the comfort decision-makers operate with a restricted framework because that has worked in the past.  What nobody was willing to question was the desire to build larger ships.  A gust of wind has made a mess of the Suez model where 30% of global trade goes through the canal.