Category Archives: Audio

RadioOpenSource.org Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The “Fragility” Crisis is Just Begun

Christopher Lydon / Nassim Taleb telephone interview.

Link to source and synopsis.

3. On bailouts: My analogy is to the gambler who is now gambling with the trust fund of his unborn great-great-granchildren… Prudence should be the first thing on the agenda of governments, not speculation. Stimulus packages are speculation… We are gambling on a massive recovery. It’s too big a gamble, and besides it’s immoral.

2. In the economic crisis, and in the Gulf of Mexico, what we should be discovering is not who made what mistake, but the fact of fragility. Alas, what we don’t learn is… that we don’t learn.

1. No government can fortify something that’s inherently fragile.

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.

Nassim Taleb Interview – The Brian Lehrer Show 052110

HatTip to Dave Lull

Nassim Taleb Interview – The Brian Lehrer Show 052110

WNYC-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, former hedge fund advisor, professor, and author of the best-selling book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Random House Trade Paperbacks; 2 edition, 2010), continues his exploration of randomness and the unpredictability of markets with the new edition of his book. Will the new financial reform bill help predict the next “Black Swan”?

Regulations are what got us here, because the regulators, with Basel ll, allowed banks to use measures of risk that were absolutely not scientific.
Give me a regulation and a cup of coffee and a few hours and I’ll come up with a way to beat that regulation… you see?

Keywords: economist detractors, hard assets, government bonds, fragility, robust to forecast errors, why should innocent future generations pay the price, failed auction, new suckers, long term interest rates, Paul Krugman, private debt to public debt, arbitrage tax laws or regulation, Basel ll, transparent derivatives trading, eliminating moral hazard from the system, punish people who make the mistakes, low debt, small size firms, society not bailing out failing companies

Nassim Taleb Issues for Investment Officers Now

HatTip to Dave Lull.

 

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ai5000 interviews Nassim Taleb
This is a link to the streaming video (which wasn’t  playing very well the day I discovered it. Just added the YouTube links). So I made an audio recording of it. You’ll hear a few skips and pops and the last few seconds of the video wouldn’t play, but it’s interesting to hear NNT share a few more specifics of his (then, Feb 2010) investment strategy.

Nassim Taleb Feb. 2010 Issues for CIOs Now.mp3

What I call cash, I’ve changed my definition of cash, my cash is what I call the numerator. It’s not just cash because I’m afraid of inflation. So I have some inflation-linked securities, what I call repository of value. I have a collection of currencies and metals. So it’s a combination of inflation-linked currencies and metals, but very short term… treasury bills, from governments… is what I call cash.

Logical Fallacies – Jan Irving Interviews Dr. Michael Labossiere

From Jan Irving’s mostly excellent Gnostic Media podcast.

What would happen if everyone in society received an immunization against all of today’s media and political propaganda? Is there a simple, logical process to arm ourselves against such attempts at mind manipulation and control? What if you had the ability to quickly and easily break down words and sentences to identify lies and untruths and propaganda? What do grammar and rhetoric have to do with logic and critical thinking, or, for that matter, marketing, PR and propaganda spin, and more importantly, exactly how can they help you? If someone presents evidence of a claim, do you have a mental duty to study it before you attack it? How can we make our minds sharper? Is it possible to level the playing field against corporate and government propaganda by creating a critical thinking meme?

[Note actual interview starts at 8 minute mark.]

Michale Lebossiere also has a great reference page with a list and description of common logical fallacies here.