Nassim Taleb (Black Swan) Interview

December 8th, 2008 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

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

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Niall Ferguson, the Ascent of Money

November 19th, 2008 · 11 comments or link to (permalink)

Unfortunately nobody has uploaded the excellent UK Channel 4 documentary version of Niall Ferguson’s timely book about the history of money, but this conversation is a good taster. Have a look out for the series of the same name.

Running time: 1 hour.

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Inside The Economist Magazine

January 15th, 2008 · comment or link to (permalink)

This interview with John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief at The Economist magazine may seem a little dull, after all, Micklethwait is hardly a celebrity. But that’s the point, The Economist does not print bylines, so the very nature of those who write for it is anonymity. However, in a period when traditional newspapers look extremely fragile, from local rags to the laurel resting, but dull and myopic New York Times, publications like the Economist, look like the only news properties with any future. And here Micklethwait talks about the future of newspapers.

If anyone wants to challenge me on the notion that the New York Times is boring, consider their recent-ish headline: “No Anthrax Found in Pond”. This roughly translates as: “Nothing Happened in an Insignificant Body of Water”. If I were teaching a journalism class, I would use this as a case study example of a poor headline.

Hoover Institution, Stanford University
42 min 47 sec Feb 5, 2007www.hoover.org

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John Carpenter: Fear Is Just the Beginning

December 15th, 2007 · 1 comment or link to (permalink)

A documentary about John Carpenter is the only setting where Kurt Russell’s appearance on screen doesn’t have me reaching for the off button.
Image Entertainment 59 min 58 sec Dec 11, 2007

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Luis Buñuel

November 6th, 2007 · comment or link to (permalink)

What’s most interesting about this documentary is not just the subject, but how representative it is of a particular 60s French style. In other words a very 60s French documentary about a Spaniard who worked in France and made timeless movies. The interviewees include Max Ernst.
Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise 37 min 25 sec Dec 30, 2006

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