Economics Quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Economics make homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Years ago, I noticed one thing about economics, and that is that economists didn't get anything right.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Adam Smith himself made the analogy of the economy as a watch or a clock that once set in motion continues on…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I want them poor and they deserve to be poor. You can't have capitalism without punishment.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Being an economist is the least ethical profession, closer to charlatanism than any science.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Economics is not a science and should not be there to advise policy.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“And entrepreneurship is a risky and heroic activity, necessary for growth or even the mere survival of the economy.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Capitalism has forced everyone to overoptimize in order to compete.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

What we do today has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism. It is a crony type of system that transfers money…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Is the economy something organic or is it something engineered? I think it's closer to the organic. You harm it by artificially…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I've debated many economists who claim to specialize in risk and probability: when one takes them slightly outside their narrow focus, but…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

If you hear a "prominent" economist using the word 'equilibrium,' or 'normal distribution,' do not argue with him; just ignore him, or…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Capitalism is, among other things, the revitalization of the world thanks to the opportunity to be lucky. Luck is the grand equalizer,…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Until recent history, the central state represented about 5 percent of the economy. ...and further, governments were sufficiently distracted by war to leave…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“The virtue of capitalism is that society can take advantage of people’s greed rather than their benevolence, but there is no need…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I'm a capitalist but one who is smallist and localist, and who favours businesses where owners are still in charge.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Someone bemoaned that there were so few women in economics. But there are also very few men in economics.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Capitalism is about adventurers who get harmed by their mistakes, not people who harm others with their mistakes.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The track record of economists in predicting events is monstrously bad. It is beyond simplification; it is like medieval medicine.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb