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Tue 8 Jul, 2008 10:27 pm
Quote:Profligate and obscurantist practices were evident long before the crisis struck. They were made possible by the invention of financial instruments that encouraged speculation while obscuring the nature of obligations.
Do the two words in bold mean "reckless" and "pedant" respectively in this context?
No. Reckless is fairly close, but the two are more like "extravagant" and "deliberate vagueness."
Try, "Thoughtless practices and the use of vague descriptions of what was really happening were evident long before the crisis struck. They were made possible by the invention of financial instruments that encouraged speculation while obscuring the nature of obligations."