Nassim Taleb is in rare form in a new interview with the Toronto Globe & Mail. Some excerpts:
[The problems are] all still here. Today we still have the same amount of debt,
but it belongs to governments. Normally debt would get destroyed and
turn to air. Debt is a mistake between lender and borrower, and both
should suffer. But the government is socializing all these losses by
transforming them into liabilities for your children and grandchildren
and great-grandchildren. What is the effect? The doctor has shown up
and relieved the patient’s symptoms – and transformed the tumour into a
metastatic tumour. We still have the same disease. We still have too
much debt, too many big banks, too much state sponsorship of
risk-taking.
And …
My advice is that instead of investing in medium-risk securities, you
should put most of your money in very low-risk securities, and a little
bit in high-risk securities. Then you might get a good black swan.
Also, it’s good to have more than one profession, in case your own
profession goes out of style. A Wall Street trader who’s also a belly
dancer will do a lot better than a trader who winds up driving a taxi.
More here.
Related posts: