Taleb: "You can’t have capitalism without punishment"
Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb wants to end Wall Street’s riverboat gambling incentive structure — heads, they “earn” fat bonuses; tails, taxpayers bail out investors — by turning banks into highly regulated utilities to “save capitalism and free markets from the banks.”
Taleb’s also out for blood, especially from private equity firms that buy companies using mostly borrowed money. Blackstone Group, for example, has lost 86% of its market value since its IPO just 18 months ago. But its founders made a fortune in its IPO, a fortune they’ll retain even if Blackstone goes bankrupt… in which case lenders will pay the price for Blackstone’s risky leveraged buyouts.
“I want them poor and they deserve to be poor. You can’t have capitalism without punishment.”
Oh, and another thing, he wants Bob Rubin, who trousered millions while chairman of Citigroup, to cough up.
“I want Bob Rubin to return his $110 million dollars to the American taxpayer.”
Posted by James on Thursday, February 05, 2009