RISK TAKING THEN AND NOW.

RISK TAKING THEN AND NOW. In the first chapter of LIAR’S POKER, Michael Lewis tells, as summarized here in a wikisummary, about the time that the chairman of Salomon Brothers challenged a bond trader to a bet of “One million dollars. No tears” to which the trader replied, after seconds of thought, “No, I’d rather play for real money. Ten million dollars. No Tears!” He describes financial trainees as “gambling on every perceivable thing (including how long it took certain trainees to fall asleep during lectures.” I was reminded of these modern figures when I read a brief article by Cynthia Crossen about Fanny Burney in the weekend Wall Street Journal. In 1778, Fanny Burney wrote a popular novel EVELINA . Crossen points out that in one scene in EVELINA some wealthy young man, set up, and gamble on, a foot race between two women over the age of 80. We have the same people today, only their institutional role is different.