by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
www.RSDsolutions.com
Quite a while ago a purchased a slim volume of risk essays titled “The Fantods of Risk”. This book of essays is written by Felix Kloman who has probably one of the most extensive backgrounds in risk, and is an acknowledged leader in the field of risk management. I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Kloman in person, and his knowledge, and more importantly his understanding of risk management, is impressive. It was with great anticipation that I started reading his essays. Unfortunately, since it is a slim volume, my housekeeper put it in my stack of academic papers – which I only sometimes choose to look through. (The academic stuff only gets looked at when I need help going to sleep.) In any case, my completion of the book was much delayed – my loss!
This wide ranging collection of essays is a true treat to read. They touch on a variety of sources, and attack risk from a broad assortment of angles and viewpoints. In its breath of topics it can be compared to Taleb’s “Black Swan”, except Kloman does not spend the majority of his words trying to convince you how smart he is like Taleb does. His musings on risk itself are also much more multi-dimensional than Taleb’s.
I really liked this collection of essays – if for nothing else Kloman is one of the few writers who (like myself) defines risk as having both an upside and a downside component. (See for example my earlier blog posting, “What is Risk?”) Kloman is also a fan of letting critical thought, rather than rigid process determine the proper risk responses. He convincingly makes the point that it is unreasonable to expect risk to be eliminated – something that I wish the regulators would try to understand.
The one unfortunate aspect of the book is that it was published in 2008 (which means that it was probably completed in 2006). It would be fascinating to have Kloman’s thoughts on the crisis included in this collection. His writings on various risk topics (such as the overreliance on mathematical techniques) are very prescient.
Although H. Felix Kloman is already well known in risk management circles and is a respected practitioner and thinker, I fear that this book will not get the attention that it deserves. Hopefully it does not wind up ignored on your “academic” reading pile!
Here is the Amazon link. (it is also available in Kindle format) http://www.amazon.com/Fantods-Risk-H-Felix-Kloman/dp/1436302269/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275868820&sr=8-2
Watch for a series of future blogs were I plan to expand on several of the points that Felix Kloman puts forth.
No comments:
Post a Comment