Bubble Economy and The Black Swan

We get angry about bubbles in the economy. Dot-com bubble, housing bubble. We like a nice orderly progression. Those days are gone. Get used to the bubble economy. In the age of swift information exchange, this is now normal. The economy of the US is generally going to go on growing, because people are productive and tech assists push things forward. But within that growth there are going to be continual bubbles, with entire sectors taking massive hits. Each will spill out into the other sectors, but will not cause overall downturns of any duration. It’s going to seem catastrophic when it’s your sector, especially if you are not one who adapts quickly to new environments. Adaptability is going to become an increasingly important characteristic to get by in the world.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, has recent commentary over at The Edge about the financial crisis. It's not the same analysis you'll read everywhere else. (HT: The Barrister, over at Maggie's Farm). I have referred to him often before and am an admirer of his work.