THE MAN WHO LOST A BILLION
"The stupidity of a 232-year-old bank in allowing a 28-year-old to trade vast sums with impunity is financial Alzheimer's." Bill Ramos Chicago
I applaud you for your insightful report on how trader Nicholas Leeson single-handedly brought down Barings, the venerable London-based investment bank [Cover Story, March 13]. You captured the vapid and temporal nature of expatriate high life in Singapore, of which Leeson was a part. Managers of companies dealing in the most sophisticated and arcane financial instruments have to master Basic Management 101. Unless they rein in their employees, another debacle of Barings' magnitude...