Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. David X. Li is a quantitative analyst and a qualified actuary who in the early 2000s pioneered the use of Gaussian copula models for the pricing of collateralized debt obligations. The Financial Times called him "the world s most influential actuary," while in the aftermath of the Global financial crisis of 2008 2009, to which Li's model has been credited partly to blame, his model has been called a "recipe for disaster". Li was born as Li Xianglin and raised in a rural part of China during the 1960s; his family had been relocated during the Cultural Revolution to a rural village in southern China for "re-education". Li was talented and with hard work he received a master's degree in economics from Nankai University, one of the country s most prestigious universities.