In the late 1990s the hedge fund's collapse sent ripples throughout the financial world similar to those we are witnessing today, yet it was overseen by the brilliant economic team of Myron Scholes and Robert Merton, who earlier shared a Nobel prize in economics.

ECONOMIST: Thailand's monarchy

That's not the kind of profit that causes people to thrust billions of dollars at you, as very smart investors thrust at Meriwether and his partners (who included Nobel economists Robert Merton and Myron Scholes).

FORBES: Archimedes on Wall Street

LTCM's other famous partners, Robert Merton and Myron Scholes, two economists whose work in the field of derivatives earned them a Nobel prize in 1997.

ECONOMIST: Business books (4)