Remember that this was likely written in 2006 (book was
published in 2007).
“Likewise, dictatorships that do not appear volatile, like,
say, Syria or Saudi Arabia, face a larger risk of chaos than, say, Italy, as
the latter has been in a state of continual political turmoil since the second
war. I learned about this problem from the finance industry, in which we see
“conservative” bankers sitting on a pile of dynamite but fooling themselves
because their operations seem dull and lacking in volatility.” –Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan