I watched an interview with Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan, and the phrase “privatize gains, socialize the losses” stuck with me.
We created a tenuous financial system where the people who ultimately got us into trouble – from the bankers, to the hedge funds, to the mortgage companies to the individuals who borrowed too much to buy homes they couldn’t afford – got to keep all the profits they made in the good times, and then were bailed out by the rest of us when the shit hit the fan.
