Matt Levine: evaluation

Transcript context

…Softball question. [laughter] I think sure, yeah. I think that’s true of a lot of sectors, actually. I think we just live in a specialized economy, where if you ask “are financiers like a priesthood because they explain just enough to maintain a mystery,” yeah, but Facebook way more so. I think that we live in a specialized economy, and everyone is angling for that notion that what they do is complicated and mysterious and important. You can get a glimpse of it, but I need to maintain the secrets. I do think finance is high up in the sweet spot, where people think it’s very complicated, and they need to defer to a priesthood. But I also think that finance has come down a bit, where now people think, “It’s complicated. We need to ban it.” Or “It’s complicated. We need to radically simplify and get rid of leverage rules, simplify leverage rules,” and all these things that suggest the general public does not believe the mystique. They find it confusing, but not in an awe-inspiring way. It’s true of lawyers, too. Matt Levine, thank you very much. [applause] You all should subscribe to Conversations with Tyler. There are also chats with Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Pinker, Cliff Asness, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Martina Navratilova to come, David Brooks to come. Thank you all again, and Matt, great job. [applause]…

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