US Must 'Save Capitalism' From the Banks: Nassim Taleb Author of 'The Black Swann' wants banks nationalizatedâand bankers punished By James Saft February 07, 2009 "Reuters" -- Feb. 04, 2009 -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable", has a simple proposal to as he puts it, "save capitalism and free markets from the banks." Nationalize the banks, limit the rewards to those who work in what he calls the "utility" part of the system and have a completely uninsured second leg that can take all the risks it wants and lose its shirt, he said in an interview in Davos at the World Economic Forum. "They rigged the game. We pay them for their profits, there is no clawback so their incentive is to hide the risk they are taking." "Which is why eventually as someone who loves free markets, a total nationalization of the part of the business that requires insurance and does clearing and payments needs to happen." "I am angry with U.S. policy. What we had is exactly the opposite of socialism, they got TARP to pay their bonuses and to take more risk." He describes his plan as Capitalism 2.0. It would have a barbell structure, with the insured utility-like part on one end and the free market bit with privatized risk on the other. He describes banking bonuses as asymmetric because the banker gets the upside but does not share in the liability which ultimately may be funded by taxpayers, as we have seen. Mr. Taleb, who as you may have noticed doesn't mince words, is no fan of private equity. "Private equity has absolutely no reason to exist. The private equity holder has all the upside and the banks all the downside." He'd have no objection to a system where private equity funds itself via hedge funds, so long as neither party had any recourse to government insurance. And a bit like an Old Testament prophet, Mr. Taleb is angry and wants those he thinks are responsible to suffer. "I want them poor and they deserve to be poor. You can't have capitalism without punishment." Oh, and another thing, he wants Bob Rubin, who trousered millions while chairman of Citigroup, to cough up. "I want Bob Rubin to return his $110 million dollars to the American taxpayer."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Neither The Reps nor the dems have the balls to stand up to the powerful Jewish wall street lobby. The two party system is a joke you'll never see TGregg or some other redneck bitch about "that", Hamas & Black people are their "Red lines" they know where they can't go. Reps talk though when on the receiving end sits a Black guy on unemployment for a measly 700 $ check, but when it comes to a FEW trillion for Wall-street institutions, they fold like little girls.....
I like how Taleb thinks. However, I don't think that posting this item in the Politics & Religion forum does it justice. Therefore, I posted it in the Economics forum.
I am watching CNBC on mute right now just because I am waiting for Taleb and Roubini; they're coming on in few minutes for an interview. I hate CNBC but can make an exception.
Talebs observations are right, but conclusions wrong. Nationalization? How about Creative Destruction? Nationalization does nothing but introduce bureaucratic inefficiency and mounting losses onto an already ballooning Federal deficit. The Government has no idea how to profitably run any enterprise - let alone an auto maker or BANK! Preposterous. Ultimately, consumers would realize huge losses in terms dearth of products, higher borrowing costs, poor investment returns, opaque lending standards etc. The answer is to clean the system out. Rather than preserve the existing bankrupt infrastructure with new ownership more INCOMPETENT than the last. Really unbelievable.