Michael Lewis's article on Iceland's foray into global finance - he compares the country to Peoria with a currency and three superleveraged investment banks - is the writer at his finest.  I heard a similar comparison being made by a very successful British hedge fund manager, of Iceland to Swindon.  I honeymooned in Iceland - it was lovely, otherworldly, and much more expensive than it is today.

There's also a very fine article by Paul Edelman on the possible use of derivatives in legal academia.  You've possibly seen it mentioned here.  It is both modest proposal and useful primer for those trying to keep track of financial basics like puts.  A taste: 

Consider the problem of High-theory Law School (HLS). It is about to hire the BSC, but there is uncertainty as to whether he will write anything that might burnish the HLS brand. On the other side is Our Little Sisters of the Poor Law School (OLSPLS), which desires to advance its scholarly profile but is unable to hire any candidates who are likely to do so. Suppose that HLS bought a put from OLSPLS for the writing of the BSC. If the papers that the BSC writes are not very good, HLS can ship them off with any citation counts, page counts, etc., now credited to OLSPLS. OLSPLS makes some money on the front end and, even if the put is exercised, gets credited for some scholarship that it would not likely get any other way. HLS is protected from low quality work for a small price. The downside risk to HLS of hiring the BSC is hedged, and OLSPLS potentially gets some exposure that it would never see otherwise.

Do give it a look.

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