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Options had been traded for centuries, but typically in only an informal, semi-organized way—in the interstices or on the peripheries of mainstream financial markets

For traders to use a model such as Black–Scholes is not like a medieval monarch making someone an outlaw by saying that they are an outlaw: no mathematical fiat.

Mathematical models are, after all, bricolage constructions inscribed with curdled utopias

What do you think about the idea of creating socialized alternatives to the data-hoarding tech giants—as mooted in these pages by Evgeny Morozov?

I think it makes little difference whether data are collected by governments or by companies, because either way the data menace whistleblowers and …