Short-sellers, or the bogeymen as they are also called, are the real culprits of the credit crisis. At least, that is what some would have you believe – and indeed, the man who may well be the world’s savviest investor seems to think that. Yet, take another look, and there is evidence to say that if we had adopted the derivatives market more enthusiastically, then the whole sorry tale of a housing bubble could have been avoided. So, in one corner, we have the world's richest man; in the other corner, we have a professor of economics at one of the world’s most famous universities, and a man whose track record with timely predictions is impressive indeed. Human nature has a lot to do with it, too – madness of crowds, and the herd instinct. But first, consider how we judge wisdom. The wise-in-hindsight brigade never go away. In his book The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb told the story well. Imagine the billionaire who is an absolute workaholic, who sleeps, breathes and eats work. It is obvious how he had made his money, and therefore, we conclude, we know what you have to be like in order to make it rich. But then another billionaire is so laid back he is horizontal. He is lazy and workshy, but creative. And there’s your answer; because he kept his mind free of the day to day rumblings of business, and allowed insightful ideas to jump into his head, he became great. The truth, though