Lessons from history: wise head or old fool?

Tony Cornell wonders if the near collapse of AIG could have been avoided by learning lessons from the past

If you work in an industry for a long time, you attract the label of a ‘wise head’ or an ‘old fool’ or sometimes both. I have been described as both and many times have had to decide whether to say what I think or hold my tongue.

It is difficult to come up with new concepts in mature industries such as insurance and most ideas are not novel. The inclination of elder statesmen is to say, ‘this has been tried before and did not work’. However, most of us refrain from saying so in fear of stifling