The Lebanese are individually very smart but collectively susceptible to tulip waves (speculative bubbles); the Riad Ponzi system succeeded in Lebanon because the Lebanese are blinded by class of risk and aspirations to get rich, making them vulnerable to fraud.
factualpending
Speaker
Nassim TalebEvidence Quote
“the Lebanese are very smart individually but they get into tulip waves okay so it's like the the Ponzi worked in Lebanon it wouldn't have worked in New York I mean someone like Riad Ponzi wouldn't have survived in in in the west he survived in Lebanon [1:09:26]”
Source
Dr. Nassim Taleb: Fragility, Robustness, and Antifragility.— Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and ArchitectCreated: 8/11/2026, 6:29:34 AM
My Notes
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