Hypatia of California: Black Swans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept that The event is a surprise (to the observer) and has a major impact. After the fact, the event is rationalized by hindsight.

Here, I will list events that I consider to be Black Swans. Black Swans can be good or bad.

I am chronicling BAD Black Swans based on more than 40 years of informed observation of global economic mechanisms, processes and trajectories.

It's getting to look like a shooting gallery here in Hypatia of California Land.

http://hypatiaofcalifornia.blogspot.com/2011/11/shunned-bund-sale-fuels-debt-crisis.html

http://hypatiaofcalifornia.blogspot.com/2011/11/three-black-swans-1.html

You may also find my Section titled: Better Plant that Vegetable Garden worthwhile.
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I have been an economics geek since I was sixteen, my senior year in high school. I took Econ 1 from Mr. Rayburn and found it fascinating. Since then I have:

Taken several econ and accounting courses at various colleges
Found out why and how the peso was devalued by a factor of ten in 1984
Tracked news affecting interest rates for 20 years in my capacity as a banker
Learned how to pick stocks and mutual funds with lots of research, aided by Valueline and Morningstar (33% annual return)
Wrote a paper in law school about the Precautionary Principle
Wrote a paper in law school on the economic effects of genetically modified corn on Mexico (the home of the corn genome and genetic diversity) and the corn species in general, including a legal analysis of applicable International Trade Law
Wrote a paper on the WTO, IMF, and the World Bank, etc.*

*Please write me if you want more bonafides. Don't give me your home address, or I will sneak into your house and explain subordinated debentures :)

Hypatia of Alexandria

Hypatia of Alexandria (Greek: Ὑπατία; born between 350 and 370 CE – 415 CE) was a Greek scholar from Alexandria in Egypt, considered the first notable woman in mathematics, who also taught philosophy and astronomy. She lived in Roman Egypt, and was killed by a Coptic Christian mob who blamed her for religious turmoil. She has been hailed as a "valiant defender of science against religion", and some suggest that her murder marked the end of the Hellenistic Age.

A Neoplatonist philosopher, she followed the school characterized by the 3rd century thinker Plotinus, and discouraged mysticism while encouraging logical and mathematical studies.

Hypatia was the daughter of Theon, who was her teacher and the last known mathematician associated with of the Musaeum of Alexandria. She traveled to both Athens and Italy to study before becoming head of the Platonist school at Alexandria in approximately 400 CE. According to the Byzantine Suda, she worked as teacher of philosophy, teaching the works of Plato and Aristotle. It is believed that there were both Christians and foreigners among her students.

Although Hypatia was herself a pagan, she was respected by a number of Christians, and later held up by Christian authors as a symbol of virtue. The Suda controversially declared her "the wife of Isidore the Philosopher" but agreed she had remained a virgin.

Hypatia maintained correspondence with her former pupil Bishop of Ptolomais Synesius of Cyrene. Together with the references by Damascius, these are the only writings with descriptions or information from her pupils that survive.

The contemporary Christian historiographer Socrates Scholasticus described her in his Ecclesiastical History:
There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_of_Alexandria

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