The "nature of the world had changed," says John Meriwether, "and we hadn't recognized it" (Meriwether interview). LTCM's wide diversification, both internationally and across asset classes, which lie had thought kept aggregate risk at acceptably modest levels, failed to do so, because of the effects of a global microstructure rooted in one of the most basic of social processes: imitation.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 1089