Economists bring back the biff

Economists aren’t the sort of people you’d have at the top of your dinner party invite list. Sure, JM Keynes might entertain your guests with wit and wisdom while Stephen Levitt – of Freakonomics fame – could astound and confront them with his work on society but on the whole it’s not the most exciting of professions…or so I thought until I read an article in today’s paper.

Under the heading “Vengeful hacker wins reprieve” the Australian Financial Review (1 February 2007, page 7) reported on the sentencing of Jeremy Rothfield, a former economist from consultancy ACIL Tasman, for hacking into the files of his former employer Access Economics.

For those not familiar with the tale, after leaving Access Economics, Mr Rothfield joined ACIL Tasman and subsequently hacked into Access’ email system, downloading confidential documents including copies of tenders that both companies were working on. Exciting stuff, cybercrime, industrial espionage, economics, all rolled up into one.

But for my money, the real entertainment (as an interested outsider) came from the judges comments about Mr Rothfield. According to the AFR the judge found that

While his feelings about AE were jaundiced, they were aggravated by feelings of abandonment caused by a lonely upbringing and estranged parents.

But wait, there’s more. The Fin went on with judges comments including the pearler:

…while his history of emotional neglect meant he struggled to fit into work environments, he would be [my emphasis] well suited to an academic career

And lastly, just in case you still couldn’t believe your eyes

[the judge] described his PhD, on underground electricity cabling, as important work that he should be free to continue

Hats off to the AFR for keeping a straight face and not inserting any (not one!) smart alec comments into the story!

Victorian County Court judgements are normally posted here but this particular case wasn’t up just yet.