Nobody reads the disclosures that roll down your computer screen. You click 'I agree' but you don't know what you're agreeing to.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Bailing out every bank that fails makes the system riskier, not safer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Bailing out failing banks can increase overall financial risk rather than reduce it.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb's quote highlights the paradox of financial bailouts, suggesting that intervening to rescue failing banks can create moral hazard and incentivize reckless behavior. Instead of providing stability to the financial system, these bailouts may lead to greater systemic risk and undermine the accountability that should accompany financial practices.
Themes
BanksBailoutRiskEconomicsFinancial System
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on financial reform, a politician could cite this quote to argue against bank bailouts.
More from Nassim Nicholas Taleb
All quotes βFragility is the quality of things that are vulnerable to volatility.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Those who were unlucky in life in spite of their skills would eventually rise. The lucky fool might have benefited from some luck in life; over the longer run he would slowly converge to the state of a less-lucky idiot. Each one would revert to his long-term properties.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Individuals should think about the worst-case scenarios and plan for them. The world will be crazier than you think it will be. Put money away, and then you can live with much more freedom.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Similar quotes
The laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. There is nothing optional or arbitrary in them ... It is not so with the Distribution of Wealth. That is a matter of human institution solely. The things once there, mankind, individually or collectively, can do with them as they like.
John Stuart MillRead
Central planning didn't work for Stalin or Mao, and it won't work for an entrepreneur either.
Michael BloombergRead
The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state, for the protection of its rights and interests: and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce among individuals. Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.
Alexander HamiltonRead
I've never believed protectionism of that kind will lead us anywhere. I think you can have certain specific rules for engaging with India.. for example, not allowing mineral resources to be taken out of the country.. but there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that when you open an economy you should do it in totality. Foreign investment adds a sense of competition; we should see this as a wake-up call to modernise and upgrade. Companies that do not will undoubtedly die.
Ratan TataRead
One of the things that happens when you have austerity is that wages get lower, and some people think lower wages in the short run can increase corporate profits.
Joseph StiglitzRead
Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury.
Herbert HooverRead