The Financial Times isn't exactly known as a quality source of humour. They don't even have a featured "fluff" article such as that with graces the front of the WSJ on a daily basis. So it was with surprise that Macro Man read a little blurb in today's FT that had him guffawing out loud: evidently, the reason that Moody's mistook CPDO turds for filet mignon was because of "computer glitch."

As "dog ate my homework" excuses go, that one's pretty rich, and will no doubt be fertile hunting ground for lawyers in the coming years. Moreover, it begs the question of how and why the other ratings agencies managed to designate this crap AAA as well; did the same ghost enter their machines?

Regardless, the avoidance of personality responsibility for one's actions is regrettably pervasive in modern society, and is certainly endemic in the financial sector. Let's peruse some of the other excuses proffered for financial mishaps over the past decade or so:


LTCM blows up: The fund's losses were caused by a correlation breakdown so extreme that according to the fund's Nobel Laureates, it should not have occurred since the Big Bang.

JWM (run by John Merriwether, latterly of LTCM) suffers large losses: Fool you once, shame on me; fool you twice, shame on you!





The Fed slashes interest rates at the slightest hint of financial distress, thereby inflating a series of bubbles: It's a little known fact, but both Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke are huge fans of English premiership club West Ham United.