We can readily guess for whose benefit the system is maintained. Lucky are those students who can pick their own texts, and for a student of derivatives, Merton Miller's latest book, Merton Miller on Derivatives , is the one to pick. Indeed, On Derivatives is not a standard book at all. The first answer is that Miller's mission this decade has been precisely to make the world understand derivatives as he sees them, and his intelligence, experience, and crisp style insure that he will succeed in the attempt. He must surely be derivatives' most persistent and convincing traveling salesman.
Derivatives are good for financial markets, and regulation is bad.
That some firms and institutions make mistakes in their handling of derivatives does not mean that the government has an obligation to keep them from hurting themselves. And even though many regulators . . . are only too anxious to assume that obligation, they can't possibly succeed. The head cheerleader wants us to understand the game so that we can enjoy it all the more. He was moaning that, after the war in the Gulf ended, the price of oil dropped very sharply and the firm suffered substantial losses on its oil inventory. When you hold inventory, non-hedging is gambling.