The Inimitable Tiff

Speaking of Taleb, he had a piece in the Financial Times the other day and went into full Napoleon Dynamite mode:

3. People who were driving a school bus blindfolded (and crashed it) should never be given a new bus. The economics establishment (universities, regulators, central bankers, government officials, various organisations staffed with economists) lost its legitimacy with the failure of the system. It is irresponsible and foolish to put our trust in the ability of such experts to get us out of this mess. Instead, find the smart people whose hands are clean.

This is precisely why I have a hard time taking Taleb seriously. Every time I read him, all I hear is the same thing:

Don: Hey, Napoleon, what’d you do all last summer again?
Napoleon: I told you! I spent it with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines!
Don: Did you shoot any?
Napoleon: Yes, like 50 of ‘em! They kept trying to attack my cousins. what the heck would you do in a situation like that?
Don: What kind of gun did you use?
Napoleon: A frickin’ 12-gauge, what do you think?

The astute reader will note that this is likely the first (of many?) direct analogies to be made between the financial/bailout crises and “Napoleon Dynamite”.