History of Science | Creative Fields | Running The Zoo

Criminal Forms of High Frequency Trading on the Financial Markets

Section 90(1) of the UK Financial Services Act 2012 criminalises the creation of a false or misleading impression in financial markets. Notwithstanding the fact that section 90 does not reference high frequency trading, the statutory language is sufficiently broad to capture high frequency trading strategies where it can be shown that they have created a false or misleading impression as to the price or value of the company share which has been, or is being, traded.

More The Sum of Its Parts: A Keynesian Epistemology of Statistics

This essay proposes a novel reading of Keynes’ General Theory, tracing its intellectual roots back to nineteenth century physics in order to understand the complex relationship between individuals and macroeconomics’ aggregate quantities. In his General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Keynes argues that the economy as a whole has its own organic existence, irreducible to the individual agents making decisions within it.

Deterring Financial Crimes of Opportunity: Prosecutorial Strategy When Banks are Too Big To Jail

This paper develops a new microeconomic model of corporate criminal liability and shows how the Too Big To Jail problem reduces the deterrence effect of a crime control policy relying primarily on large corporate fines. In the presence of Too Big To Jail firms, prosecutors should shift resources toward prosecutions of individual managers, so they bear a substantial personal risk from dealing dishonestly.

The Trouble Is The Banks

In the wake of the Occupy Wall Street protests, I wrote an appendix to n+1’s The Trouble Is The Banks, cataloging the major malfeasance committed by the banks, as revealed in the legal settlements to date.

Marshall Scholarship

The UK Parliament’s Marshall Scholarship scheme funds American graduates to live and study in Great Britain. With the support of the Marshall Scholarship, I moved to London’s Goodenough College in September 2013 and took up an MSc Economic Policy course at University College London.

Yale Law School

In 2015, I will take up a spot in Yale Law School’s class of 2018. I will study criminal law,…

The Uncertainty of Risk

Complex interactions are impossible to fully enumerate beforehand, so it is dangerous to try reducing one’s uncertainty by “hedging” the risk of one action by taking on another speculative bet, which a risk calculation says is in the “other” direction.

London School of Economics and Political Science

I will be a student in LSE’s MSc Risk and Finance course from 2014-2015, studying quantitative financial risk management, financial & corporate crime, and comparative regulatory philosophy.

University College London – MSc Economic Policy

I am reading for an MSc in Economic Policy at University College London, generously supported by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office as part of its Marshall Scholarship Scheme

Einstein’s Big Break

My Brown University honors thesis was an epistemological study of scientific revolution, using Kuhn, Althusser, and Foucault. The thesis is structured around a close reading of Einstein’s 1905 papers, which broke with the mechanical view of classical physics.

Brown University

I double majored in physics and modern critical philosophy at Brown University, in Providence, RI.

TEDxGoodenoughCollege

When we think about the uncertain future through the lens of risk management, we misunderstand the meaning of probability. In short, we treat the real world too much like a game of chance, and in doing so, we make three big mistakes: we try to play the odds, we think of the parts but forget the whole, and we think we know just how bad things can get.

Deterring Financial Crime by Too Big To Jail Banks

For the dissertation component of UCL’s MSc Economic Policy course, I researched how the existence of Too Big To Jail banks changes the microeconomics of financial crime prosecution. By modeling prosecutorial discretion in charging corporations versus their mangers, the dissertation showed that unless managers face a credible threat of incarceration for criminal behavior, authorities will be unable to optimally deter financial criminality by and within financial institutions.

Manhattan District Attorney’s Office

I worked in the Major Economic Crimes Bureau Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for two years. As an Investigative Analyst, I…

Financial Intelligence Unit Software

I designed and programmed a custom case management and financial intelligence software tool for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Financial Intelligence Unit

John Muir Trail hike

In August 2011, I hiked the John Muir Trail from Yosemite Valley to Mt. Whitney. The 15-day solo trip through the High Sierra was challenging, remote, and beautiful.

American Constitution Society

I am serving on the board of the Yale Law School chapter of the American Constitution Society. In my role…

The Copenhagen Interpretation: Bohr, Heisenberg, & Foucault

We can situate the transition from Newtonian mechanics to the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum theory can be placed in Foucault’s epistemic scheme developed in The Order of Things

3 Quarks Daily

In 2010-2011, I blogged for 3QuarksDaily’s Monday Musings series. The articles discussed how to use probability to model decision making in a psychologically…

Teaching at The Wheeler School

During the 2010–2011 school year, I taught Advanced Placement economics and physics courses at The Wheeler School in Providence, RI.

Modern Critical Philosophy

One of my two majors at Brown University was an independent concentration I designed, called Modern Critical Philosophy. It focused on continental philosophy, while drawing from courses in analytic philosophy, gender studies, political economy, and Africana studies.

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