Tag Archives: The Guardian

The UK’s Coronavirus Policy / Corporate Socialism

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The UK’s coronavirus policy may sound scientific. It isn’t  (The Guardian)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Yaneer Bar-Yam
Wed 25 Mar 2020

Our research did not use any complicated model with a vast number of variables, no more than someone watching an avalanche heading in their direction calls for complicated statistical models to see if they need to get out of the way.

Corporate Socialism: The Government is Bailing Out Investors & Managers Not You (Medium)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb with Mark Spitznagel
Mar 25, 2020

Why should we spend taxpayer money to bailout companies who spent their cash (and often even borrowed to generate that cash) to buy their own stock (so the CEO gets optionality), instead of building a rainy day buffer? Such bailouts punish those who acted conservatively and harms them in the long run, favoring the fool and the rent-seeker.

 

Black swans, debt, risk and mother nature-NassimTaleb & David Cameron 2009

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David Cameron in Conversation with Nassim Taleb from The RSA on FORA.tv

(Click arrow to play audio) Audio only Nassim Taleb in conversation with UK Conservative party leader David Cameron. They discuss how Black Swan thinking can be applied…

From The Guardian’s take on the talk.

The remarks by Taleb, the conservative author of the book Black Swan, were made during an appearance with Cameron at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) on Tuesday. Labour attacked Cameron, who says Taleb’s work confirms his own prejudices, because the “eccentric” academic says economic crashes are a good thing. In some of his most provocative remarks at his appearance with Cameron, the Lebanese-American academic criticised Obama for increasing his taxes as he harked back to Darwin’s theory of evolution. “I happen to do OK. I am paying more taxes,” Taleb said. “How can you have evolution if those who do the right thing have to finance those who did the wrong thing? If you are making money in 2009 – that means you have a robust business in the cycle – you are paying more taxes. If you are losing money in 2009 you get a bigger tax break. It is the opposite of everything I believe in.” Taleb has become a conservative folk hero following the success of his book, which examines the phenomena of “Black Swans” or “low-probability, high-impact events” that can have a major impact on the world. via David Cameron’s guru Nassim Nicholas Taleb says rich should not pay more tax to help the poor | Politics | The Guardian.