Monday, July 14, 2025
Taleb Questions CalPERS Ben Meng’s Competence and Honesty in Defending Missed $1 Billion Hedge Gain; Taleb Estimates CalPERS Net Loss on Meng’s “Alternative Mitigation” Over Two Years at $19 Billion
Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls out one of CalPERS CIO Ben Meng’s Big Lies, and unearths an even bigger one.
A Payments Holiday is More Realistic Than You Think
It may be simpler to enact a payments holiday than to try to get money to the hands of individuals who desperately need it.
Is There Any Better Time Than Now For a General Strike?
May Day is around the corner. It seems a fitting time for workers to demand better via a general strike.
2:00PM Water Cooler 4/16/2020
Today’s Water Cooler: Biden administration personnel, Biden VP, Biden and The Zuckerberg, Biden and AOC, “essential workers,” Hofstadter, bourgeois riots, employment situation, manufacturing, California groundwater, Carnival, the corporate super-spreader, hospital staff cuts, apples, LSD
DemocracyWatch: Global Pandemic Power Grabs
Yet another pandemic downside….
Lockdown Rebelliousness: Denying that Coronavirus Is in Charge
The supposed irresistable force of the economy is losing out to the immovable object of the coronavirus.
Taleb: The Only Man Who Has A Clue
A recap of what Taleb and his fellow complex systems analysts have been saying about coronavirus. Not pretty.
The New Fault Lines in a Post-Globalized World
Coronavirus is smashing up the economic and political order. What sort of world comes next?
2:00PM Water Cooler 4/15/2020
Today’s Water Cooler: Obama’s Biden endorsement, Warren endorses Biden (Obama, Geithner), AOC interview, Sanders post mortems, Democrats and the bailout, retail, manufacturing, wheat, Amazon, Boeing, GM, #COVID19 (testing, drug evaluation, class), instant karma, citizen science
“Something Has Gone Wrong”: UK Government, Banks Screw Up Coronavirus Loans, Small Firms Near Collapse. Better Results in Other Countries
Quelle surprise! Big banks in the UK don’t like making small business loans, especially not at 1.5%.
The Really Really Yucky Airlines Bailout
The airlines are at the trough. It’s not quite as unseemly as the 2008 bank bailouts, but that’s an awfully low bar.
Massachusetts Recruits 1,000 ‘Contact Tracers’ To Battle COVID-19
Some spots in America are staring to get serious about contact tracing to limit coronavirus spread. But can they commit the resources?
