Taleb is not one to avoid the words ‘I told you so’ – something which gets up the up-turned noses of his establishment critics. But, that is not the only reason for the hostility directed at him. Taleb has found new ways of annoying people, especially those on the left. David Runciman identifies their main complaint:

“Taleb thinks modern states become fragile when they get into debt, and that a prerequisite of political antifragility is rigid fiscal conservatism.”

Leftwingers enjoyed The Black Swan because it exposed the intellectual bankruptcy of the financial establishment. However, though Taleb continues to excoriate the cheerleaders of vulture capitalism, he also shows that they are all of a piece with the advocates of debt-fuelled statism.

In other words, Taleb, in his own defiantly eccentric, willfully cantankerous fashion, has shown himself to be a proper conservative. And his critics – whether of the left, right or centre – don’t like that at all.

via Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his enemiesThe Deep End.