A Fearful Asymmetry: Predator Drones, CDOs, and “All the Bonds In Christendom”

The Off White Papers: by Craig Hatkoff, Rabbi Irwin Kula with Professor Clayton M. Christensen; Co-founders, Disruptor Foundation

Note: Harvard Business School Professor Christensen was the father of disruptive innovation theory; he passed away on January 23, 2020

(This is an updated version of a previously unpublished article from August 2010 that is being released in memory of Clay’s passing in light of the emerging financial crisis stemming from COVID19 pandemic)

The Tyger (by William Blake)

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

When Risk Goes Asymmetric Strange Things Can Happen

Flashback to the Great Financial Econolypse of 2008. We were fortunate that however ugly and creepy the Fed-led bailout of the financial system was, it worked — at least temporarily. Rahm Emanuel forebodingly said “never let a good crisis go to waste” but boy that one sure got away. Some forty years earlier, the systemic fault lines were reset on August 5, 1971, when the “Nixon Shock” shattered the foundations of the world financial order. Gold inconvertibility, coupled with rampant inflation, set off a systemic boom-bust cycle that we just can’t seem to get under…