
102 Be co mi ng t he r ea l de al
4
Company A has a large unfunded pension liability. Is this a real liability?
Should it be counted as debt? If you know that the net deficit is
$10 million, do you care about gross assets and liabilities? What else do
you want to find out?
5
What is ‘duration’ in the context of bonds? Does a bond have beta
exposure to a market?
I found many of those I interviewed unable to answer the questions to
the level we required, however nice they were as people.
Frustrated by his inability to answer the questions, one guy shot back
at me: ‘What do you make in a year?’ (My only answer was a confused ...