December 27, 2024

Author Nassim Taleb said people should pay attention to events in the Middle East from a humanitarian perspective, but not as investors.

“I would say to investors, basically ignore what’s going on in the Middle East and as individuals you should be worried,”Black Swan“The connection between the market and these events is completely unpredictable, even more unpredictable than the events themselves,” the author told CNBC’s Kelly Evans in an interview with “The Exchange” on Monday.

Taleb, a distinguished scientific adviser to Universa Investments, spoke after another shocking development in the region, in which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in an apparent helicopter crash Loss of life.

Despite the shocking news, the market reaction was muted, with major stock indicators mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down slightly, but mostly due to a drop in JPMorgan Chase shares.

In addition to his work in markets, Taleb is a Lebanese-American essayist whose seminal book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” warned against trying to predict the unpredictable. He primarily advocates an investment approach that hedges against unusual events such as the 2008-09 financial crisis.

On a personal note, Taleb said it is important to “address” the difficult situation exacerbated by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

“People think this started in October,” he said. “When you have an unresolved situation, it’s like putting Novocaine on it. You have to solve the problem. You can’t wait for it to go away.”

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