March 17, 2010

Honors thesis plumbs meltdown

A Harvard honors thesis on the Wall Street meltdown is a source for an important new book on the subject.

The summa cum laude thesis in economics written by A.K. Barnett-Hart ’09 was a useful source for Michael Lewis's just-published book The Big Short, on the Wall Street meltdown and ensuing recession, according to Peter Lattman's "Deal Journal," a Wall Street Journal blog. Lewis, the author of Liar's Poker, Moneyball, and The Blind Side, lauds Barnett-Hart's thesis, handed in just a year ago, in his acknowledgments section, asserting that it "remains more interesting than any single piece of Wall Street research on the subject." Titled "The Story of the CDO [collateralized debt obligations] Market Meltdown: An Empirical Analysis," Barnett-Hart's thesis also won a Harvard Hoopes Prize for outstanding scholarly work.

You might also like

A group of children interacts with an adult man, some laughing and smiling.

A colleague remembers the late Harvard professor and child psychiatrist, who died this month.

A photograph of the inside of the From Iran exhibit at the Harvard Peabody Museum

Tk tk Iran

Artist Azadeh Akhlaghi reconstructs moments of Iranian political upheaval in a series of meticulously staged images.

Smiling man in a black suit against a dark blue background.

Jason Furman to Lead Center for Business and Government

The new director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center bridges economic research and policy.

Most popular

A woman with long hair stands confidently with crossed arms next to a pickup truck.

In her memoir All That's Unseen, Emilee Hackney explores religion, friendship, and home.

A woman with a black sweater and patterned scarf stands under an archway.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin has been named dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education.

An image of a magnifying glass examining a page that says "fact vs. fiction"

Sheila Jasanoff has spent her career studying how societies produce knowledge, evaluate expertise, and make decisions about technology.

Explore More From Current Issue

A woman with long, silver hair rests her chin on her hand, wearing a black top.

Arts & Culture

Author and Harvard Divinity School writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams finds beauty in the world around us.

Black and white photo of Joseph Murray in a white lab coat sitting in an office.

Alumni Profiles

Nobel Prize recipient Joseph E. Murray dedicated much of his career to organ transplant surgery.

Two colorful octopuses swim among vibrant coral and sea life in a lively underwater scene.

Research

New Harvard research finds octopuses go beyond sight and touch to find mates.