Codebreaker Makes $2.8B in a Year

[Tyler Durden]

I've wondered about this, and I have my doubts.
Oh, not that they can't do it, but that they would.
And not that they wouldn't, but like their intelligence they'd save it for a
really rainy day.
Like, wasn't 9/11 big enough for them to spill the beans on what they could
do? Or maybe, in fact, some of the 'warnings' from FBI, etc.., in the months
prior to 9/11 were actually leaks from NSA.
For them to be monkeying around in those big leagues in such a way that it
could matter, they'd have to be visible in the markets...I think. Then again,
with dozens of shell companies all trading biggish volumes, they could
possibly make it look like no one company was consistenly guessing in the
right direction.
And then of course, maybe they aren't shell companies, but having mucked about
in financial circles for a while I tend to doubt they simply make a call to a
big fund manager.

On the other hand, here's a funny notion to play with: Bush needs money, calls
up NSA. NSA makes some deals based on what they sniff. The deals are big
enough (what with the war and all) that the dollar starts to take it up the
culo. And here we are...

-TD



> Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:00:49 -0400
> To: cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net
> From: jya at pipeline.com
> Subject: Codebreaker Makes $2.8B in a Year
>
> For Hettinga's nose coke blowing about the virtues of coding:
>
> New York Times reports today:
>
> "James H. Simons, a mathematician and former Defense Department
> code breaker who uses complex computer models to trade, earned
> $2.8 billion. His flagship Medallion fund returned 73 percent."
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16wall.html
>
> What could NSA do in the market with its acres of computers
> and thousands of cryptologists?
>
> To be sure, Simons might just be stealing data in the NSA
> way and covering it up with the tall tale.
>
> Financial cryptography is not be trusted.

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