Monday, December 22, 2008

YouTube - Benoit Mandelbrot thinks we're all screwed

YouTube - Benoit Mandelbrot thinks we're all screwed

Among other interesting insights in this piece is the identification of efficiency as one of the causes of fragility in the system. In turn, this is a "Tragedy of the Commons" problem - it is in the interest of individual firms to be as efficient as possible but that may cause small problems to have large negative consequences on the rest of us. Is it a job for government to ensure that there is slack in the system?

No comments: