The Number That Killed Us: A Story of Modern Banking, Flawed Mathematics, and a Big Financial Crisis

An unflinching look at the risk measurement tool that brought about the Great Recession

It's time to learn the truth about the financial crisis.

In The Number That Killed Us, risk management and derivatives guru Pablo Triana presents a shocking look at Value at Risk (VaR), the mathematical model that encouraged banks to take on toxic assets they should never have touched and that ultimately brought the international financial system to its knees. Examining the myriad problems that went overlooked during the two decades when VaR was the king of financial management—including using the past to predict the future and depending on an algorithm instead of common sense—the book discusses topics such as: the history of VaR, its role in Washington, the role of regulators and academics in a malfunctioning financial world, how bonus-hungry traders used VaR as an alibi to take reckless bets, and much more.

Essential reading for individual and professional investors, market professionals, regulators, policymakers, and anyone who wants to really understand where all the money went, The Number That Killed Us drags the risk measurement tool that has repeatedly and severely hurt the financial world into the spotlight.