ANYONE READ "THE BLACK SWAN" by Nassim Taleb?

[country lady]

I read this book last year. It is not an easy read and I certainly didn't understand everything, but it is so timely today with our scary economy. The author was interviewed on Bloomberg from Davos, Switzerland this morning at the world economic meeting. He seems to be one of the few who makes any sense. After I read the book, I heard the "Black Swan" comment and knew the gist of the conversation.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

I haven't read that one yet. I have been reading voraciously about the economy for the last five years. How did I miss that one??


The whole system is SO screwed up. Whatever comes next won't leave us the same as we are now.......

I liked the guy at Davos I think it was Klaus Schwaab that said, the entire system needs to be rebooted!

I say reboot some of them out and then you can start over! Why are some of these CEOs still employed? Some of them should be in jail!

 

[country lady]

This is a must-read book to understand some of what is going on.

You are so right. Where do we get these fools? Who in their right mind would agree to Fannie/Freddie being half private and half government? And these Board of Directors agreeing to the CEO "bonus" of $100 million! Disney's Eisner had his child's private school principal on his board--it is absolutely crazy! And financial institutions get billions with no over-sight or rules! Heck, to get a loan from a bank the little guy has to list everything almost down to his cat's name!

I don't even want to get into the Madoff crime. Some things are kindergarten stuff, like truth and honesty. Sorry, I'm off my soapbox, but I did enjoy reading your comments.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

will have to check the book out. But not from my local library.. since it is nearly closed all the time, lost it's accreditation and now we cant borrow books from any library near us either.

WAY TO GO!!!!!! Literacy is going to be an even bigger problem with all the cuts going on now.
My kids 1st grade class will be a BIG one since I am sure they will be laying off teachers over the summer. Oh and we must not forget that they have the MCAS test that the kids HAVE to pass to get to the next grade. Sure.. with no teachers that will be SO happening.

Is it terrible for me to hope that it all goes down the toilet? Maybe it will weed out the dumb faster.