A Veneer of Certainty

From the head to the shoulders to the floor, another flake departs. Please, [insert deity of your choice here], don't let her get involved in Texas politics again. We don't need another incompetent loyalist bearing the foul taint of the Bush administration getting into public service.

Much like the recent hue and cry for assistance for those with subprime mortgage woes, I can't help but wonder if much of the market volatility of late has been contrived to pressure the Federal Reserve into reducing interest rates even further. A threat, if you will, to hold the economy hostage until the Fed relents and provides an indirect bailout via fluid credit.

And where were the risk management departments when CDO's packed with subprimes were going around? For several years we've been hearing about the vaunted risk management strategies employed by some of the largest financial institutions. It even became a career path, for 's sake. Were they looking the wrong way when hedging?

Either way, it's called "risk" for a reason. Mitigate it via legal & ethical means, not an indirect bailout.

This pic just cracks me up. I imagine the same ilk clustered around the table when Limbaugh was doing his beer hall putsch in the early 90's.

I'm current working on a 2-year data architecting project of a size, scope and visibility that could produce severe bowel control problems if we don't get it right. Aside from the enormity of the data modeling task - even with tools - the old religious war of natural key vs. surrogate key is again raising its ugly head. Some spot research on the latest thinking revealed a nicely-written commentary on the battle and merits of both.

I respect Walker's approach to the topic as rejects the usual dogmatic standpoints of the extremists, and rational explanation of his views. While I'm not 100% convinced on broad use of surrogate keys I appreciate the article's points of data abstraction and performance considerations. However, as with a lot of articles on the topic it neglects the downstream issues with identity columns (table replication/loading, archiving, etc.) but those are a minor concern. Overall I liked the arguments and will rely on Walker's points when I get to the physical model.