Description: An overview of the newsletter articles.

Description: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is more than just sexual farces and fart jokes. In the Tale of Melibee, Chaucer imparts wisdom on choosing advisors, soliciting advice, and judging advice. This is informed by Chaucer's experience as a royal official, as well as his great education.

Description: Discusses creating a user-friendly [and bullet-proof] spreadsheet.

Description: After research involving auto insurance is retracted due to fraud, I revisit my own book review and unskeptical quoting of that now-debunked research. A lesson in ASOP 23, on Data Quality, ensues, as it seems data in the research was falsified. There is also a lesson in ASOP 56, Modeling, which includes aspects of relying on outside experts for model input. At the end of it all, the value of our actuarial professional standards, in light of other professions seemingly having no standards (or no serious repercussions for breaching said standards), shines through. Also, be skeptical of 'one simple trick' approaches to transform the insurance industry.

Description: This article discusses the management and testing of spreadsheets.

Description: Some of the great works of classical literature still speak to issues that business leaders face today. The author focuses on Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War and Homer's The Iliad.

Description: A review of the book "The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty" by Dan Ariely. The book is about lying, cheating, stealing, and shaving the truth -- something done by everybody, but the factors influencing this can be a bit surprising.

Description: A review of business schools’ online offerings.

Description: A summary of Modeling Section-sponsored sessions at the 2016 Life/Annuity Symposium, covering model risk management, model governance, and model efficiency.