[bendtheblock]

It's a letter to the leader of the opposition and, potentially, the next primeminster. Taleb must be concise with his argument - it's not new to us because many of us have read The Black Swan or Fooled by Randomness.

I agree that commercial debt can be used for investment and is therefore useful. I think he is commenting on national debt. The problem is that the UK and US hold a magnitude of debt that will not be re-paid for several generations. Most of us would agree this is not healthy.

Further to this, his point about debt is that it is used to prevent the old institutions from failing and the resulting tax increases are hindering the next wave entrepreneurs. The financial crisis should have sped up the next wave of creative/destructive innovation in the financial sector but instead we are pretty much back to the status quo in The City and on Wall Street.