Nassim Taleb: It would be 'irresponsible' to send people back to work now

*This interview was recorded on March 30, 2020

Nassim Taleb, New York University distinguished professor of risk engineering, says a "white swan" event like the coronavirus pandemic was preventable.

"They're not bailing YOU out, they're bailing out investors and corporations...they are bailing out those who did not have a buffer."

Nassim Taleb spent 20 years as a derivatives trader and, after closing 650,000 option transactions and examining 200,000 risk reports, he changed careers in 2006 to become a scholar and philosophical essayist. Taleb is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University's Polytechnic Institute, but he self-funds his research and operates in the manner of independent scholars. He is the author of four novels, most notably The Black Swan and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. Taleb's works focuses on decision making under opacity, as well as mathematical and philosophical problems with probability, in other words on "what to do in a world we don't understand" as well as on the properties of systems that can handle disorder.