So says Nassim Nicholas Talem of Black Swan fame, referring to the Nobel committee for “legitimizing” economists, inducing reliance on their ideas, and thereby causing the financial crisis. According to the article, Taleb identified Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller and William Sharpe for their work on portfolio theory. Talem goes on to announce that he wants “to make the Nobel accountable” and “citizens should sue if they lost their job or business owing to the breakdown in the financial system.” Absurd. Apparently, book sales are slow. What is most disappointing is that the reporter was actually able to get Sharpe to respond and take the claim much more seriously than it deserved.