Nassim Taleb: Look to Mother Nature for Financial Solutions

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/08/18/David_Cameron_in_Conversation_with_Nassim_Taleb

The Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb says that solutions to the current financial crisis are simple. "Look at mother nature. Mother nature does not like leverage and mother nature does not like 'too big to fail.'"

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Nassim Taleb is the best-selling author of Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. So called 'Black Swan Events' are climactic, random and hard-to-predict events that have been entirely unexpected, and often hitherto perceived to be impossible.

At this breakfast event chaired by Danny Finkelstein, Comment Editor of the Times, Nassim Taleb explains the relevance of his ideas to the economic crisis, and argue for measures to create a more Black Swan-robust society. David Cameron responds and takes part in a discussion with the audience. - RSA

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is an essayist, belletrist, and researcher.

Taleb is currently a researcher at London Business School. He the Deans Professor in the Sciences of Uncertainty University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Fellow in Mathematics in Finance, Adjunct Professor of Mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University (since 1999), and research fellow, Wharton School Financial Institutions Center, and Chairman, Empirica LLC.

Taleb held senior trading positions with trading houses in New York and London and operated as a floor trader before founding Empirica LLC. His degrees include an MBA from the Wharton School and a Ph.D. from the University of Paris. He is the author of Dynamic Hedging, Fooled by Randomness, and The Black Swan.

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[merdufer]

In a sense, I think that's one big problem with FORA posting these short clips. If we fail to recognize them as promotional material that invites us to watch the full video, and start having discussions and drawing conclusions from them, we can end up being quite misinformed.

[LiveFreeOrDieNow]

When in doubt, look to nature.

[mounickkumarreddy]

hahahhahahahahahahahahahhaha he is funny

[csacta]

@flogthedoggy --- oh, I how I wish you were wrong!

[romeoechomike369]

The problem is that man is a duplicitous creature. Unlike other mammals, man thinks in subversive terms about how he can exploit a situation. It doesn't matter that something was organized for a good purpose, if he can twist it to make a profit, he will. So with the stock market that was initially used to create capital and investment into enterprises that might benefit mankind, it has instead become a gambling casino that benefits the richest investors, while suckering the little guy.

[vivaloriflamme]

Strange to say, he reminds me of Andy Kaufman.......

[jaggnosis]

@merdufer Well put. I like your observation.

[flogthedoggy]

this guy is great , the only flaw I can detect with the nature parody is that humans do not function as any other animals in nature. We have the need to be lead and to form large groups of the same mind set or become a collective with a dogmatic vision of our ability to transcend mother nature, all of our science and religion tries to point above our comprehensions to a singular understanding and nature never has a singlular anything , so human ego robs us of our own true nature , oh the irony

[theroilsoil]

Mother Nature has decided to push the restart button again - and it's very simple.

[kja5]

Be patient...lol.

Late 2010 you will be shouting:

"Oh, the Humanity!"

[Finiras]

recession or depression is not "crash & burn"