Monthly Archives: June 2010

Tumor is still in the system – Nassim Nicholas Taleb part 1 & 2

Popular NNT / Roubini CNBC clip from August 12, 2009.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4GsCXnL9LE]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5qbo7i_VMQ&NR=1]

I was a trader for 21 years, and anyone taking markets seriously needs to consider the following… You remember the day when Kervial was liquidated? The SocGen rogue trader… ‘the hero’ in France. They sold $50 billion dollars worth of stock. How much did capitalization drop world-wide, based on that?  Markets went down 12 percent! With a $50 billion order, you drop markets by 12%. We lost 7, 8 Trillion. A huge amount. So it tells you, don’t pay attention to stock markets. They’re driven by the marginal buyer. It means nothing. Short term markets mean nothing.

Nassim Taleb Hay Festival 2010 Guardian Video Clip

Nice editing. NNT in excellent form. Wish it were longer.

Hay Festival video: On the power of cab drivers
Nassim Nicholas Taleb on knowledge, power and why a cab driver knows as much as a political scientist about what is going to happen tomorrow.

Audio only version.

When it comes to economic life, we have evidence that a cab driver knows as much as a political scientist-anyone in Washington- in what’s going to happen tomorrow.
People tend to fit their beliefs to the profession, rather than fit their professions to their beliefs…
…when people’s income depends on certain set of beliefs, they will endorse these sets of beliefs, just for the sake of maintaining their lifestyle.