Sorry, mig, I wasn't thinking about the mathematicians.  I was thinking of the people who hired autistics and still don't understand why their financial models have taken leave of reality.  Is that not a metaphor for what's wrong with the whole stinking mess?

Now where are we going and what's with the handbasket?

You can't have expected them to come up with a serious discussion, though.  These things must be rushed, since there are more important issues to deal with After all, Britney Spears is having another meltdown, and Michael Bloomberg might be running for president.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

Well, if autistic means "Them don't bother to wear suits to work, I tell you ! some don't even shave daily !", that's not that unlikely.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

I'm sorry.  I guess my point was lost in the stereotype.  Autism is a very real, very serious mental illness, having nothing to do with mathematics.  The problem is not autistic mathematicians.  The problem is financial managers who are so obsessed with making the numbers look good on paper that they begin to believe they can evade reality if they can just manipulate the numbers enough.  If they just hire clever enough people to manipulate the numbers, they can make the reality of a mountain of bad debt look like it's something else.  If the current crisis was really caused by a bunch of autistic mathematicians in the back room, would it make the crisis any less real?

Now where are we going and what's with the handbasket?