Why 'The Black Swan' Author Thinks Its A Good Idea To Be Rich, But A Bad One To Be 'Too Rich'

Former options trader and essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb said on Twitter Wednesday that there is a lesson to be drawn from what is happening currently to the Russian oligarchs.

What Happened: The author of “The Black Swan” said that an old trader told him that “It is safer to be rich, but not too rich.” Taleb said what is currently happening to the Russian oligarchs confirms it.

What is happening to Russian Oligarchs confirms what an old trader told me: it is safer to be rich, but not too rich.
Ma non troppo. Russians with moderate fortunes under 50 Mil are off the radar screen.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) April 6, 2022

“Russians with moderate fortunes under 50 [million] are off the radar screen,” said Taleb.

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Why It Matters: On March 11, the U.S. Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russian and Kremlin elites such as the oligarchs.

Targets include the family of the Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov, prominent Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg and members of the Russian State Duma, according to a statement. 

More than 30 Russian billionaires are no longer on the Forbes’ World Billionaires List and those still on the list have lost a quarter of their wealth, reported Business Insider India. 

Currently, only two Russians are on the Forbes list — Egor Kulkov, a partner of Pharmstandard, and Denis Sverdlov, the CEO of British electric vehicle manufacturer Arrival ARVL, as per the report.

The richest person on that list is Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk, with a net worth of $219 billion.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum ETH/USD, and Dogecoin DOGE/USD have not been used for sanctions evasions by Russian oligarchs, according to a Cointelegraph report.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that the Treasury had not seen significant use of cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions by both Russian oligarchs and government entities, as per the report. 

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Photo: Courtesy of Salzburg Global Seminar on Flickr