
Beware those Black Swans - jamesbritt
http://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2010/07/debt-system-mother-black
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This is a postscript to the new paperback edition of his book.

Don't miss the set of principals he lays out at the end of the article. These
are pure gold.

* What is fragile should break early while it's still small

* No socialisation of losses and privatisation of gains

* People who drove a school bus blindfolded (and crashed it) should never be given a new bus

* Don't let someone making an "incentive" bonus manage a nuclear plant - or your financial risks

* Compensate complexity with simplicity

* Do not give children sticks of dynamite, even if they come with a warning label

* Only Ponzi schemes should depend on confidence

* Citizens should not depend on financial assets as a repository of value and rely on fallible "expert" advice for their retirement

* Make an omelette with the broken eggs

The ponzi scheme one rings particularly true to me.

The question now is, how do you replace a system that is already set up to
fight these principals? I could maybe imagine setting up a new system that
embodies principals such as these... but how do you change (refactor?) a
government/legislation/economy to get there?

