Link to Source

(My notes) The banks have made 2.2 trillion over the last 2 years. Salary plus bonuses.
It is a tax on citizens. Bailout scheme, since Reagan.
You need something to break the bank cartel. Federal Reserve policy is there to help the banks. Last year they had record bonuses.
The ONLY valuable information you can get from bank earnings is how much they pay themselves.
Which is why I like the model of a hedge fund because at least you see what’s there.
$1.58 Billion put aside for compensation and bonuses.
If we bail you out, you should not be paid a bonus.
In business, if you have the upside, you’ve got to keep the downside.
The banks are in the business of hiding risk. They make steady money, collect bonuses, and when the thing collapses, we pay the price.
Hammurabi’s Code

Nov 30, 2009

C-SPAN | Q&A

Malcolm Gladwell, best-selling author and writer for “The New Yorker” magazine, spoke about his writing and the state of the journalism and publishing industries. He had four books on either the New York Times Hardback Bestseller List or the New York Times Paperback Bestseller List. His most recent book, What the Dog Saw, was a compilation of stories he wrote for the New Yorker magazine. His previous best-selling books include The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000), Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), and Outliers: The Story of Success (2008). Malcolm Gladwell had been a writer for “The New Yorker” since 1996. Prior to that he wrote for The Washington Post for nine years.

Shared by JohnH
Two C-Span videos from 2007 just popped up. I haven't seen either of them! I don't seem to be able to embed the video. I'll also look for audio downloads and post the links if I find them.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb talked about his book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, published by Random House. In his book Mr. Taleb argues that people are too focused on what they already understand and reluctant to engage in what they don't know. He described improbable events that have had a great effect on the world, from the September 11 terrorist attacks to the creation and success of Google. He contended that these "black swans" challenge our concept of randomness and the unknown. The guest interviewer was David Brooks.

Nassim Taleb is a former Sciences of Uncertainty professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is the author of Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and in Life.

David Brooks is a columnist at the New York Times. He has been a contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly as well as a senior editor at The Weekly Standard. Mr. Brooks is the author of two books, Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (and Always Have) in the Future Tense.

Charles Murray and Nassim Taleb discussed their research on interpretations of historical achievement and great human accomplishments, including the analysis of unexpected events throughout history. After their presentations they responded to audience members' questions.

Charles Murray is the author of Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 and Nassim Taleb is the author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.

(Click arrow to play audio) Nassim Taleb (only, please see original source for entire program).

Shared by JohnH
HatTip to Dave Lull.

CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER

Taleb says that Ronald Reagan started it.

“This is why I get along with Ralph Nader,” Taleb says. “Nader was the
first to say that the difference between Republicans and Democrats is cosmetic.”

“It is Ronald Reagan who bailed out the banks in 1983 and started this whole process.”

Reagan of the Milton Friedman free market philosophy?

“Exactly,” Taleb said. “There is something about governments that will be susceptible
to the pressure of lobbyists to bailout the big corporations.”

“Had Reagan not bailed out Citibank in 1983, we would not be here.”

Where would we be?

“If the government didn’t bail out Detroit and the banks, we would have a
better Detroit and better banks. Smaller and more competitive companies.”

“People forget that much of the growth of companies came from debt building.”

“Small companies are the energetic ones. The energy and innovation comes from small
companies in California. And these companies neither go into debt nor do they
get bailed out.”

Okay, so government shouldn’t be bailing out the big banks.

But what about cracking down on corporate crime?

“If two adults want to speculate, they should be free to do so, conditional on society
not bailing them out,” Taleb says.

“The government should be there to enforce the rule of no socialization of losses.
You want to make sure the banks are never big enough to take these risks at
the expense of society.”

“The rule is as follows – if you want a bailout, you are under our regulation.
And we want you small. And we don’t want you to take speculative risks.
In other words, you are a utility. And you obey our rules.”

“If you are not to be bailed out, then you can do what you want, providing that
you don’t harm the public.”

ByThe Economist Newspaper Limited

Economist interviews Nassim Taleb on the subject of his new book, The Bed of Procrustes.

(Click arrow to play audio.) Nassim Taleb Interview

My first draft introducing AntiFragility (unedited)
http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/af.pdf

The risks stemming from the Federal
Reserve’s efforts to stimulate the economy through bond
purchases are “humongous” and the central bank doesn’t fully
understand the potential effects, said Nassim Taleb, author of
“The Black Swan.”

“These people do not understand risk,” Taleb said in an
interview on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack” program with
Erik Schatzker. He compared U.S. central bank policy makers to
the managers of Long-Term Capital Management LP, the hedge fund
that failed in 1998.

The Fed, led by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, announced a plan
to buy an additional $600 billion in government debt last week
to support the economy after purchasing $1.7 trillion of assets
from December 2008 through March. Bernanke doesn’t understand
that the plan risks unintended consequences such as
hyperinflation and that it may ultimately backfire and introduce
a new crisis to global markets, Taleb said.

“He is someone who talks about returns without talking
about risk,” Taleb said. “It’s identical to a pilot talking
about speed and not talking about safety. The measure he’s
taking, quantitative easing, may work but should it fail the
risks are humongous.”

Nassim Taleb’s book of aphorisms is now shipping at Amazon.

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms