Nassim Taleb (Black Swan) Interview
December 8th, 2008 1 comment link to (permalink) posted by david
Charlie Rose interviews Nassim Taleb who famously compared investment bankers to turkeys. Taleb is best known for his book about the importance of seemingly impossible but inevitable events such as Black Swan sightings after the discovery of Australia, where they exist.
A turkey gets fed very well, until it gets slaughtered. Right up to turkey killing day, turkey analysts and advisors would recommend investing in relationships with farmers to feed and shelter them. So it has been with bankers from the 80s till now.
Rose asks Taleb for a balanced view of how bad the economy will really get, compared to the extreme doomsayers such as Nouriel Roubini, who correctly predicted each step of this ‘great recession’ and who worried Rose’s viewers by saying that it meant the end of American empire.
Taleb’s reply is that it will be worse than Roubini thinks. At which point there is an audible thud as Charlie Rose slams his hands on the desk, aghast.
Full interview, running time: 20 mins.
Via Calculated Risk
tags: business interviews
1 response so far »
Tom Foremski : Dec 9, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I saw this when it first broadcast and I’ve seen several times since! it is well worth watching the full interview. I’ve been a huge Black Swan fan since the book came out…
BTW this is from Taleb’s web site: fooledbyrandomness.com.
“My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves & the quality of their knowledge too seriously & those who don’t have the courage to sometimes say: I don’t know….” (You may not be able to change the world but can at least get some entertainment & make a living out of the epistemic arrogance of the human race).”