The author of The Black Swan doesn’t approve of the looming reappointment of Ben Bernanke as chairman of the US Federal Reserve. Writing in the Huffington Post, he says:
What I am seeing and hearing on the news — the reappointment of Bernanke — is too hard for me to bear. I cannot believe that we, in the 21st century, can accept living in such a society. I am not blaming Bernanke (he doesn’t even know he doesn’t understand how things work or that the tools he uses are not empirical); it is the Senators appointing him who are totally irresponsible — as if we promoted every doctor who caused malpractice. The world has never, never been as fragile. Economics make[sic] homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific.
No news, no press, no Davos, no suit-and-tie fraudsters, no fools. I need to withdraw as immediately as possible into the Platonic quiet of my library, work on my next book, find solace in science and philosophy, and mull the next step. I will also structure trades with my Universa friends to bet on the next mistake by Bernanke, Summers, and Geithner. I will only (briefly) emerge from my hiatus when the publishers force me to do so upon the publication of the paperback edition of The Black Swan.
Bye,
Nassim
That’s quite a god complex Taleb’s got going on there (“he doesn’t even know he doesn’t understand how things work”).
I found his book hard to read. He isnt alone in thinking Bernanke should be given short shrift.
I’m not opposed to the idea of opposing Bernanke’s reappointment (although I do think that some of the criticisms made in the post to which you pointed rely too heavily on the benefit of hindsight).
I do suspect that Taleb has, to use a school-yard colloquialism, got a big head from getting it right once and is now getting narky because people aren’t hanging off his every word.