Nassim Taleb: We're in a Crash / Debt to Equity

[nuclearcollision]

5:25 The thing is, timing is very important. Sure, the house may collapse, but it DOES make a difference if it's next week or next decade. Everything is ultimately "fragile". I also predict that the sun will die out. Eventually.

[SaganCarlRules]

The weird thing about Nassim Taleb is, I think he occupies the ground between pretentious unoriginal self-masturbation and insight.

[MarcusCMarcellus]

@SaganCarlRules

I rarely respond to comments, but that was a very good one. I agree. His book is a self-promoting bore expanding on one idea: there are always hidden variables. re: a succinct account of Long Term Capital instead. On the other hand, the work he has done with that French mathematician (Benoit?) on fractal geometry and finance is interesting and original.

[jdbrown371]

The official unemployment number comes from the U-3 unemployment report. The U-3 (9%)category includes people who are without jobs and who are available for work. U-3 is misleading. The broader U-6 (18%) category includes everyone in the official rate plus marginally attached workers, those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently. It also includes part time workers who took part time work because they couldn't find full time jobs

[GiovannaNYC]

Unemployment is actually around 18%, not 9.2% . This is what happens when an entire system is built on trust, and then that trust begins to fail. Our industries and services raised production capacities to a level that was unsustainable, given that most of the money we were spending on these products was borrowed to begin with.