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(VERB) to ignore the fact that a particular action was a crime, and focus instead on possible problems it may cause for the perpetrator. Named for Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838), who famously remarked of Napoleon's murder of the Duc d'Enghein, "It was worse than a crime... It was a blunder."
Sometimes this is misspelled "tallyranding." It's not certain that Talleyrand ever said it; it was probably attributed by his many enemies.
WHY IT'S BAD
In March 1804, when Napoleon Bonaparte was consul of the French Republic, he became aware of the fact that a leader of the royalist opposition was hiding out across the border of France. Napoleon had him kidnapped, brought back to Strasbourg, "tried," and put to death. The unfortunate young man was never accused of doing anything illegal; he had not violated the laws of the French Republic because he was not in France, and when he had been, he was serving the previous government.
Whoever actually said "...worse than a crime...a blunder" was ignoring the fact that it was a crime to murder an innocent person, and focusing instead on the fact that it was DUMB. In some cases, such as this one, it's a reasonable thing to do; but if it becomes a habit then moral judgment is deliberately suspended.
It's the asshole's substitute for moral fiber.
There is altogether too much Talleyranding going on. This wasnât a blunder; it was a crime.
(Taken from the comments of Jim Henley's blog, *Unqualified Offerings*, "I Already Shot You"--May 31, 2010)
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(FINANCE) for a financial instrument, the person/institution who takes the opposite position. For example, in a credit default swap (CDS), the buyer is someone who needs insurance against the possibility that a borrower will default on a loan. In that case, the counterparty is whoever receives the CDS premiums, and pays out in the event of default.
The purpose of financial options is to minimize risk to the buyer; therefore, it creates potentially lucrative opportunities for the counterparty, because the counterparty takes on so much risk.
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(FINANCE) real estate mortgage backed securities; usually used to refer to the derivatives created by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that were used to create collateralized debt obligations CDO's.
Most economists seem to agree that the 2008 crisis was caused by the collapse of the real estate market, which was mainly caused by the toxic relationship between RMBS's and the CDO's created mostly with them.
For almost eighty years the RMBS business helped people buy homes, with few serious problems. Then Congress abolished Glass-Steagall, the banks merged and created CDO's, and total disaster followed.
And now our neighborhoods look awful as well.
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(FINANCE) borrowing securities for immediate sale, in anticipation of a sharp decline. Short selling requires strong nerves and excellent market timing; it also requires the ability to locate tranches of securities to borrow. If the short seller is correct, then she can buy back the securities at a much lower price, and lock in very high profits with very little initial investment.
Closely related to the concept of a short position. However, a short position includes buying put options (for example), while a long position could include short selling put options. So they are not exactly the same.
If a short sellers are wrong about the market, they are left hastily covering shorts, or buying the item they borrowed at a HIGHER price than they sold it for.
Jim Fisk was a master of the short squeeze; he appeared to cooperate with short selling until he was able to call in loans, forcing his counterparties to cover their shorts.
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The belief efforts to protect people from calamity will only lead to them being more careless, and bringing on more calamity.
This is a fallacy because it (a) assumes people can adjust personal risk to replicate an incomparable situation, and (b) it confusing risk-taking and risky behavior. "Risk-taking" is a neutral term that includes anything that increases risk in some way, such as operating a machine at a higher speed. This usually is done to get some other benefit. "Risky behavior" is foolish, feckless, or sloppy behavior that has no intrinsic utility to the person engaging in it.
An example of the curmudgeon's fallacy is the erroneous claim that safer cars make for careless drivers.
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The idea that, if you mitigate the consequences of a particular type of accident, then that type of accident will necessarily occur much more frequently, more than negating the initial benefit.
The CF assumes that human nature is perverse and seeks to equalize consequences. Hence, improved automotive technologies such as air bags, ABS, space frames, etc. will be offset (or more than offset) by careless driving, leading to increased highway fatalities.
FALSIFICATION: Empirical evidence shows that, while reducing consequences increases risky behavior, overall safety/health outcomes are better. Insurance companies with a stake in reducing claims verify this.
More generally, the CF confuses all forms of risk-taking, such as faster highway speeds, with fecklessness. Increased speed and convenience (for motorists) has utility; and there is no principle in welfare economics that says risk-taking will increase by an amount sufficient to offset the safety measures.
The massively overrated book *Freakanomics* (Dubner & Leavitt) includes many examples of the curmudgeon's fallacy.
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(FINANCE) a situation in which an investor stands to gain if a particular investment instrument (stocks, bonds, gold, real estate) goes up in value. One "takes a long position" with respect to a particular item.
There are several ways of taking a long position; an obvious way to go long is to actually own the thing itself. Supposing you are taking a long position on Intel common stock (NASDAQ:INTC), here are some other ways:
* Buy a call option for INTC, especially with a strike price higher than the current spot price.
* Write a put option for INTC, committing yourself to buy more INTC stock if the price goes down over the near term
* Buy a futures contract for INTC at spot (or more).
CAVEAT LECTOR: there are many _potential_ definitions of long position; I have given the broadest one available.
MICHAEL: I want to flatten my long position on T-bills.
ANNA: I would recommend buying a covered interest swap with another major currency, like yen.
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