Trained to Be Dull

Trained to Be Dull

Nassim Taleb, author of the bestseller The Black Swan, doesn't have a very high opinion of bankers:

...think of a bank chairman whose institution makes steady profits over a long time, only to lose everything in a single reversal of fortune. Traditionally, bankers of the lending variety have been pear-shaped, clean-shaven, and dress in possibly the most comforting and boring manner, in dark suits, white shirts, and red ties. Indeed, for their lending business, banks hire dull people and train them to be even more dull. But this is for show. If they look conservative, it is because their loans only go bust on rare, very rare, occasions. There is no way to gauge the effectiveness of their lending activity by observing it over a day, a week, a month, or...even a century!

Taleb will be speaking at the opening session of the upcoming Financial and Private Sector Development Forum at the World Bank, along with Tim Harford, a columnist at the Financial Times, and World Bank President Robert Zoellick. I expect the discussion will be lively.


Posted by Ryan Hahn on February 10, 2009 | Permalink