Nassim Taleb Endorses Ron Paul

My favorite iconoclast Nassim Taleb goes for Ron Paul.

From Benzinga.com (hat tip Bob Wenzel)

Nassim Taleb, the best-selling author of The Black Swan, endorsed the presidential aspirations of Ron Paul. "From the risk vantage point, Paul is the only candidate that represents my values," he told CNBC earlier today.

"There are four key issues that no one else is addressing," said NYU Politechnic Institute and Oxford University professor, the first three of which he identified as the deficit, the Fed, and US militarism. "Then there is the notion that America is about resilience. You do not achieve that through bailouts," he told CNBC.

"I want a system that gets better after every shock. A system that relies on bailouts is not such a system," he said, noting that Ron Paul is the only candidate willing to take the risk to talk about the hot button issues.

"He is doing the equivalent of chemotherapy on the fundamental issues," said Taleb. "It may hurt, but that is the only choice you have. You cannot advocate for novocaine when in fact you need a root canal."

It is interesting to see an intersection of views with people of different backgrounds.

Here is Nassim Taleb in Davos 2009,

It was effortless to talk about complexity and its effect on risk: how redundancy, diversity, and such properties were central in avoiding collapse.

In short both believe in forces of decentralization in dealing with a complex world. That’s fundamentally the opposite of all standing US presidential candidates out there.

My preference for Ron Paul is not only because he represents the Classical Liberal-Austrian School of Economics and libertarian perspective, but he is for me, the ideal freedom fighter.

A Ron Paul victory will resonate for the cause of (individual) freedom around the world. But even if he loses, the Ron Paul revolution has been emblematic of the political trends of the information age era.

I may be wrong, but I think the establishment will do everything it can to block a Ron Paul presidency. And even if Ron Paul does win the presidency, I fear that he may target for assassination as a Ron Paul regime (that’s if he keeps up with his ideals and promises) will be devastating to entrenched vested interest groups (both from the interests of the left-the welfare class, and the right-the warfare class).