People concerned with the fate of the U.S. economy shouldn't listen to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner or economists such as Paul Krugman, says essayist, mathematician and author Nassim Taleb.
Why? Because Geithner and Krugman didn't predict the recent financial crisis beforehand, Taleb says, according to The National Journal.
“Did someone predict the crisis before it happened? ... If the answer is 'no,' I don't want to hear what the person says,” says Taleb, author of "The Black Swan," a book on risk and probability theory.
“You have a million people on this planet who call themselves economists … How many people understood the risks of the system [before the crisis]? ... Paul Krugman was not one of them.”
Taleb is also concerned about deficit spending in the United States, adding the situation here is more worrying than in Greece, which has grabbed headlines during the past year due to its spending.
“The U.S. is probably the worst of all,” Taleb tells Canada’s BNN television network.
“They are addicted to debt. We have an administration that, unlike the European administrations, is not aware of the risks of mounting deficits, of the addiction to public deficits and to big government.”
Republicans and Democrats are bickering over tax hikes and programs dependent on public spending ahead of November’s congressional elections, although some say both sides have to address the deficit issue and stop arguing over it.
“The long-term fiscal picture is just horrific ... It may take a crisis before we can break the political stalemate,” says Isabel Sawhill, a Brookings Institution fellow, according to Reuters.
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