In his now cult classic book, “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder”, iconoclastic thinker Nassim Taleb weighs in on such diverse topics as how the “losers” in history eventually prevail, why Thanksgiving turkeys should not make future predictions based strictly on the past and why an increase in theoretical understanding of medicine actually leads to fewer drugs being patented. The arguments he develops are witty, informed by a wide-ranging, targeted erudition. I will leave the non-initiated reader to develop a taste for this undefined and indefinable thinker. But the core of his dichotomy pits the idea of “fragility” against that of “antifragility.” He then relates “fragility” and “antifragility” to a wide array of states of the world that concern us all, and in particular, the presence of government in our lives.

via The U.S. Debt Through A Lens Concavely – Seeking Alpha.