Taleb on Dalio, Capitalism not broken - it's skin in the game

Ray Dalio has opined on how capitalism needs reform.*

Nassim Taleb somewhat disagrees and points the blame at a lack of skin in the game for corporate managers, and the problem of big corporations over a move localist, decentralised world. Taleb is consistently localist over globalist.

Taleb: “…...I like Ray as a person. I like him personally but I think this point of view is profoundly mistaken because it's not capitalism that's wrong. It's absence of skin in the game. That is wrong. Absent yes going back to risk taking going back to risk taking. Absence of accountability. You have people making decisions that harm others without being harmed. That's not capitalism that's corporatists. Who are we talking about. What I would say is the structure that we have today Israel has skin in the game. Gray hat's kind of game was his fun. But he doesn't really protect to society where we have centralization of people in Washington making decisions like Alan Greenspan that affect this whole country. And when people you know are harmed they don't pay the price. Well that that one person is Jay Powell now the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Yes. But he's more responsible OK because he he understands the job of the Federal Reserve should be minimum harm not policies that may entail side effects more generally. Jay Powell gets that better than Alan Greenspan. He gets a lot better but of course he's not the great Volcker Volcker. OK. Not yet. OK. Hasn't Sean a swan. No let's go back to the core problem is you want to live in a society that is decentralized enough that people who make a mistake are also harmed by their sit by their mistake not just inflict harm on other bailed out. What happened is we have evolved into thanks to a large state to a situation of corporatism those close to the state are bailed out It's crony capitalism. That's not capitalism crony cup. How do you fix it. There are a lot of that. I wrote a whole book on it. The skin in the game. I wrote a whole book about it. Skin in the game. So for those who haven't read the book. OK. So the idea is is locally. First of all the shameful to make a recommendation without being harm. OK. If something goes wrong it forecast without having some skin in the game sense being harmed by it how you structure a society in a way to be smaller companies. Is that not what happened is the minute we decentralize be like Germany when you decentralized…” H/T Bloomberg markets interview.

*A blog on Ray Dalio’s piece on Reforming Capitalism https://www.thendobetter.com/investing/2019/4/6/ray-dalio-on-reforming-capitalism

Taleb on Climate: https://www.thendobetter.com/investing/2017/9/18/nassim-taleb-climate-change-risk

Taleb Commencement address https://www.thendobetter.com/investing/2017/8/1/nassim-taleb-commencement-address

https://www.thendobetter.com/investing/2018/2/28/skin-in-the-game-nassim-taleb


What is Davos like?

Billionaire, Ray Dalio says this on Davos:

“Many people have asked me to share what Davos is like so here goes. It’s a gathering of people from all over the world who are sitting in very important seats in all sorts of subject areas (government policy makers, tech/philanthropy/science and most other specialties). These are not theoretical people; they are people who are actually in the seats of having to wrestle with the world’s most challenging and exciting problems. They interact by exchanging thoughts in 1) one-on-one meetings, 2) small gatherings, 3) through panel discussions and speeches and 4) after hours parties—so one can dive into whatever one is interested intensely with some of the smartest, most immersed, and nicest people in just about any area one is interested in. I personally start at about 7:30am and end at about 11pm each day and spend about 80% of my time in about a dozen one-on-one meetings and do all of the other stuff in small doses. I still regret missing out on so much other great stuff. I mostly focus on economic and geopolitical topics and a bit on ocean, nature conservation, and AI. I end the day with more energy than I start it because it’s so exciting to learn, help others understand, and come up with things to do that have big beneficial impacts.” (From his LinkedIn blogs)