“Today there is a dependency on people who have never been
able to forecast anything,” Taleb said. “What kind of system
is insulated from forecasting errors? A system where debts are
low and companies are allowed to die young when they are
fragile. Companies always end up dying one day anyway.”

Taleb, a native of Lebanon who gave his speech in French to
an audience of Quebec business people, said Canada’s fiscal
situation makes the country a safer investment than its southern
neighbor.

Canada has the lowest ratio of net debt to gross domestic
product among the Group of Seven industrialized countries and
will keep that distinction until at least 2014, the country’s
finance department said in March. Canada’s ratio, 24 percent in
2007, will rise to about 30 percent by 2014. The U.S. ratio, now
above 40 percent, will top 80 percent in four years, the
department said, citing IMF data.

“I am bullish on Canada,” he told the audience. “I
prefer Canada to the U.S. or even Europe.”