Interest Rates and Coupon Bonds in Quantum Finance

The unexpected demise of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, in many ways could be a more fitting parable of macroscopic quantum effects than Schrödinger’s original cat. It was not in the interest of investors or employees to scuttle the firm. But although every aspect of the investment house was constructed to avoid its collapse, a few wrong decisions by a few people apparently brought it down. Since decisions ultimately are the result of quantum processes, it is conceivable that Lehman’s bankruptcy and in a broader sense the whole financial crisis could have been a mega-amplification of the sort Schrödinger envisioned determining the fate of his cat. Until the books were opened and the firm found no investors, Lehman Brothers according to Copenhagen orthodoxy would have evolved into a superposition of bankrupt and solvent quantum states. Measurement that weekend of its market value revealed insolvency. Is this quantum description of...