Taleb took issue with Krugman’s support of deficit spending. “This transformation of private debt, with all the moral hazard it entails, into public debt is, number one, from a risk standpoint, bad,” he said. “And from an ethical standpoint, I find it immoral. The grandchildren should not bear the debts of the grandparents.”

Taleb called Friedman’s book The World is Flat “very bad for society,” arguing that it did not adequately assess risk. 

One person who did see the crash coming? Nassim Taleb. “In 2008, when the crisis happened, a lot of heads of state were interested in my message,” Taleb said. “Including David Cameron.”

Asked where the economy would be in 25 years, Taleb gave the vague response that “everything fragile will break.” Oh, and that the Fed won’t exist anymore. It will be replaced by something “I think more organic and that makes more sense.”