So you can imagine The Black Swan author’s surprise to find out his b-school chum is an alleged insider trading specialist.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, got a shock when he opened the newspaper last weekend and saw a picture of an old classmate from Wharton business school at the University of Pennsylvania.“He was an extremely likeable fellow, chubby, a warm personality. If I had to give my keys to someone in case of getting locked out of the house, he’d be the kind of guy I’d go to.”
“I thought: What is this guy doing with the FBI?” Mr Taleb said of Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group hedge fund manager charged last week with alleged insider trading.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 9:52AM
and..... he would be homeless by now..
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 9:56AM
Like you're such a hard-body yourself, Taleb?
-raj-raj
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 9:57AM
no fat chicks.
-NNT
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 9:57AM
fuckity fuck fuck FUCK.
-Danielle Chiesi
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 9:58AM
He looks so vegan in that pic.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:00AM
"Nassim Taleb hates fat people"
true story.
Posted by Barney F , Oct 20, 2009 10:01AM
Warm, chubby and likeable? I have all that and more. Go ahead and give me the keys, baby !!
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:02AM
@7 we're talking keys to my house, not ass.
-NT
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:06AM
Taleb = unintentionally funny.
Everytime.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:08AM
quick clarification- what I was "shocked" about was to see that my once "chubby" school chum had blown up to professor klump proportions.
-nnt
Posted by Investorcluzo , Oct 20, 2009 10:09AM
I'm going to throw it out there because I know you've all been thinking it:
wharton breeds crooks, full stop. tired of being an also ran to that other school, their motto is: if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'
@1 - he wouldn't be broke. remember raj-raj, unlike madoff, made money through illicit trades - he wasn't cooking the books.
boom, done!
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:12AM
@11 eat a dick.
-sac wharton '77
Posted by pfluger , Oct 20, 2009 10:12AM
Wasn't BM "warm, chubby, and likeable" too?
I'll be putting all my money with a cold, skinny, SOB manager who everyone hates.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:13AM
@13 no, he wasn't warm or likeable. just chubbs.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:15AM
Wharton has been an also ran to Columbia for the last decade. And they do turn out an inordinate number of unethical jerks.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:17AM
@13 - So, Dick Fuld? Let me know how that works out for you.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:18AM
@13
So we've got Chiesi, Madoff, and Rajaratnam. I'm starting to think that starting a FoF that profiles managers and traders on the basis of ethnicity,nationality, and gender, as compared to investment strategy and track record, might not be a bad idea. I think I'll call it GDCM, for Grand Dragon Capital Management. Any other ideas for a name out there?
Posted by pfluger , Oct 20, 2009 10:19AM
@16:
That's the first time I heard anyone claim that DF is an asset manager....
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:21AM
@17 = racist
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:22AM
Cluzo - I meant his house would be emptied .. not his investments - i.e.; the dude is a crook...
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:23AM
@19
Wow, you're quick aren't you.
-17
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:25AM
@pfluger 13:
I just opened a fund. Wanna get in on the ground floor ?
Andrew Hall.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:31AM
@11 eat a dick.
-sac wharton '77
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:36AM
taleb is just an attention grabber. adult attention deficit disorder.
Posted by Investorcluzo , Oct 20, 2009 10:36AM
@12/23 - wharton '77 and still working? can you say underachiever or do you process trades (which would still beg the question why you’re still working)? just sayin'...
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:36AM
@Nassim Taleb: Eat a dick.
Biggest blowhard in the industry. No, you did not predict this crisis. You just said, in effect, shit happens. We've all known that things don't move in a normal distribution since the '87 crash. Your hedge fund paid its way in theta to death before the crisis. Anyone who invested in your new funds this year has lost money- there's a time to be long vol and a time to be short.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:38AM
taleb is just an attention grabber. adult attention deficit disorder.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:48AM
@26
OTM
Taleb is an idiot
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:53AM
@11 eat a dick.
-sac wharton '77
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:53AM
My wife refuses to give me a rim job
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 10:56AM
indian dudes have small dicks
dennis kneale
Posted by NotNasser , Oct 20, 2009 10:58AM
#17,
So what is the racial/religious cubbyhole into which we at Grand Dragon would assign Meriwether, Scholes, and their merry band?
John Barry and Thomas Daniels of Beacon Hill?
The late Kirk Wright?
Daniel (not the football player) Marino?
Posted by NotNasser , Oct 20, 2009 11:00AM
Well, yes, come to think of it, the Grand Dragon fund doesn't have a problem classifying Krk Wright....
Posted by pfluger , Oct 20, 2009 11:00AM
@22:
Before I invest, I need to do my due diligence.
How much do you weigh, and how tall are you? How do people react when your name is mentioned? Are they repulsed?
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 11:09AM
Penis shape is the single best predictor of performance.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 11:20AM
@35 please elaborate
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 11:21AM
Anyone who invested with Galleon got exactly what they should.
Trust a moslem with anything, and regret it later.
Perhaps one of you enlightened, tolerant, PC progressives will quote some obscure exception to TGFD's sound generalization?
The Guy from Delaware
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 11:33AM
@TGFD I see you're going for the ban.
Getting banned again is the new killing it.
.word.
Posted by Joe Mac , Oct 20, 2009 12:01PM
@12,23,29,30...
I'm here to help.
Bwarny
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 12:05PM
What the f is that guy looking at?
Posted by now on buyside , Oct 20, 2009 12:26PM
@37- um, dude, I don't think Raj-Raj is a Moslem, particularly seeing as the majority of Sri Lankans (>75%)are either Buddhist or Hindu and seeing as there are clearly many pictures of him hittin the vino...
Posted by Anal_yst , Oct 20, 2009 12:33PM
@Haters of the Grand Dragon Fund
Profiling works for El Al, not so much for some other airlines, so perhaps the alternative diligence approach isn't so wrong, after all, no?
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 12:49PM
Seriously - who poses for a photo like that?
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 12:57PM
Taleb, who cooked the random soup to a nice simmer, is also a fraud, more on the intellectual side.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 1:26PM
I really enjoy the 23 yr old "hitters" who constantly remind you they went to Wharton.... undergrad.
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 1:38PM
Buyside@#41...
Thanks for correcting TGFD's error, but when it comes to financial dealings, moslem or hindu, what's the difference? Neither is trustworthy.
TGFD won't go into a Dunkin' Donuts that's run by bengalis. Watered-down coffee, yesterday's donuts & brkfst sandwiches are to be expected. Swindling is bred into those fucks. They don't seem to understand why most westerners don't think the way bengalis do.
The Guy from Delaware
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 3:52PM
@45 Wharton Undergrad > Wharton MBA
Posted by guest , Oct 20, 2009 4:22PM
Surely he should have realized there would be a Black Swan in his class. This shock admission goes against his whole theory.
Posted by NassoSpecial , Oct 20, 2009 4:58PM
My next book: The Fat Swan.
Posted by Jimmy , Oct 20, 2009 7:38PM
Fat tale?
Posted by guest , Oct 21, 2009 6:24AM
there is a difference in being funny about stereotypes and being out right racist... People have fought and died for the dignity to stand equal... don't belittle it.
Posted by guest , Oct 21, 2009 9:35AM
@47, 45..
Damn straight. There's a reason the undergrad averages are higher in every shared MBA/undergrad course.