Re Ahlstrom on Social Darwinism and Kelsonian risk

[Keith Wilde <kwilde@magi.com>]

While I agree completely with Per Ahlstrom's sentiments about the
importance of spreading one's risk, I am pretty sure it is unfair to
accuse "the most enthusiastic Kelsonians" of endorsing a policy of
putting all of one's eggs in the same basket. Indeed, my experience with
those who perceive themselves as the most most accurate and orthodox of
his disciples is that they consider the attachment of Kelso's name to
the ESOP alone as a deplorable shortfall from his vision and maybe even
a slur.

The best antidote I know of to this mistaken perception is a paper that
I heard at a "binary economics" session at the 1998 annual meeting of
SASE.  The author is a banker and investments dealer/adviser in
California, and he sent me a copy of his paper after the meetings.
Unfortunately, my efforts to have him submit the paper for publication
in some forum have so far been futile.  If he does not respond to the
gentle nudge of this public reference to substance, however, my next
step will be to publish his name and address so that Homestead
participants can hit on him directly with requests for hard copy!

Keith Wilde