He also had a healthy scepticism of mathematical-risk models and metrics, even though his bank invented many of them.

ECONOMIST: How banks can improve their approach to risk management

In theory, ratings agencies and mathematical models help investors price the risk they are taking on, even if the securities they are buying are scarcely traded.

ECONOMIST: Risk and the new financial order

But teaching unions argued banning calculator use in the tests would risk pupils' ability to use them to tackle more complex mathematical problems.

BBC: Government bans calculators from primary maths tests

Even if the engine produced the correct answers, there was still the risk that a transcription or typesetting error would result in the finished mathematical tables being inaccurate.

ECONOMIST: The world��s latest computer

Mathematical modelling suggests that if microbicides were used by only 20% of women at risk, and were used only half the time, this would still prevent more than 2.5m infections over three years.

ECONOMIST: AIDS microbicides: An ounce of prevention | The

These attempt to manage the risk of the banking system through the superior guidance of complex rules based on black box mathematical algorithms.

FORBES: Catching A Frisbee Is Difficult: The Bank Of England Tells It Like It Is