In August 2008, the Economist printed an article called “Confessions of a Risk Manager”. We have taken some key points out, hopefully for the reader’s benefit.

Expect the unlikely:

“The possibility that liquidity could suddenly dry up was always a topic high on our list, but we could only see more liquidity coming in the market and not going out of it.”

“A 20% drop on assets with virtually no default risk was inconceivable – though this did eventually occur.”

Look for clues:confessions of a risk manager