On this episode of Slate Money, Felix Salmon of Fusion, Cathy O'Neil of mathbabe.org, and Slate's Moneybox columnist Jordan Weissmann discuss:

•The economics of partying on New Years Eve in Times Square

•The risky side of derivatives trading 

•Warren Buffett and predatory lending

Read about the Gaussian copula function in Felix's piece for Wired.

Check out other Panoply podcasts at itunes.com/panoply.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @Felix salmon, @mathbabedotorg, @JHWeissmann

Podcast production by Zachary Dinerstein

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