Do “Sophisticated Solutions” Still Have Appeal?

Watched Michael Lewis, author of "The Big Short," on Sixty Minutes Sunday evening. (if you missed him, this blog has links to the interview.) While Lewis talked of "mass delusion" among Wall Street's best and brightest, I started reading a Northern Trust ad in the NY Times Sunday Magazine. The copy invites readers to see Northern for "a plan using … sophisticated strategies and solutions."

"No Thanks!" I thought. A number of "sophisticated" hedge funds and private-equity deals have gone down in flames. And let's not even talk about offshore tax shelters. If I had $10 million or $20 million, I'd be trying to simplify my financial life, not looking for sophisticated solutions.

That's probably one reason I'm not rich. After fighting to withdraw their money from hedge funds over the past two years, I read in the WSJ, investors are now putting their cash back in.

Hope beats experience every time.

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Speaking of Michael Lewis, don't fail to read the Harvard undergrad's thesis on CDOs that he commends in his book. From what I've read so far, it's lucid and, in places, scary. (Why anyone still pays attention to what the bond-rating firms say, after they declared sliced-and-diced toxic mortgage bundles to be triple-A bonds, is beyond me.) WSJ subscribers can read about the remarkable author here.