Thursday, December 9, 2010

Mr. Taleb and Mr. Mandelbrot

Here is a gentleman that is fighting ingrained thoughts, the status quo, and money interests. Mr. Taleb is challenging fundamental concepts that are being used by bankers and financiers. There really is no credible theory to replace what has been used and established on Wall Street over many years. He does mention in this video that VAR (Value at Risk) analysis should be immediately discarded. The question I have is what replaces it? No bank or risk manager can go out there today and justify what they are doing, because there is no “standard model” that they can stand on.

I agree with Mr. Taleb’s views, but throwing out old theories and replacing them with theories that use power laws, etc. is what Mr. Taleb argues for in his books. It’s going to take a long time to change the way things are done. In fact, what is upsetting is that it seems to me that the bankers and financiers have “won.” Nothing has changed and the system is more fragile than ever. Maybe the whole thing just has to implode before things change. I hope not, but it sure feels like that is the way things are moving.

What can we say about Benoit Mandelbrot? He is a visionary. His insights have been brushed aside by the establishment, but someday, if not already, he will eventually be proven right.

No comments:

Post a Comment