And a Needham Man Will Save Them

The oncoming recession might actually be good for the February issue of Boston magazine. Especially if people in finance read it. All this talk about black box economies, opacity on Wall Street, and obfuscation of investor information, and here our magazine found a man who has all the answers.

His name is Richard Field. And he holds a medical patent that could resolve the credit crisis on Wall Street. The Street is an inherently complex place these days, but his idea is simple. He says he can bring to heel all of those subprime mortgages that were bundled into bonds and sold on the Street. None of the buyers knew the value of the bonds because no one knew the terms of the mortgages that comprised them.

Field has a medical patent that can track a hospital’s unpaid bills. He says if it can track those bills, it can just as easily track subprime mortgages, telling a bond buyer the terms of the mortgages, who’s current in paying them, and even the credit scores of borrowers. It’s a sort of transparency Wall Street doesn’t have right now, but desperately needs. This information, leading analysts say, could save the structured finance sector of the market.

And if Wall Street adopts it, Field’s idea could be worth $2 billion a year. Sure, this is a shameless plug to read Boston. But considering how scary things have been, Field’s idea is worth noting.

PHOTO BY Christopher Churchill.