that we have this exponential growth and debt that has left us very fragile the opposite of what nassim taleb would say is anti-fragile had we had the capacity for example to produce our own medical equipment our own medical supplies our own pharmaceuticals we don't have that so what we have is essentially controlled unplanned central bank run economy and that is where everybody is looking for answers to a pandemic which is just bizarre in the past week before as this crisis was unfolding we saw the st louis fed president bollard says credibility of central banks seems to be eroding so comparing it again to 2008 and the 2008 crisis when we saw gold sell off by 30 percent over the course of 6 months i don't think we're going to see that this time because as he points out rightly so i believe that the fed has lost credibility and. and there is nothing but faith in the sense of a fee up currency world so i think central banks have been the biggest buyers of gold since 2008 so you have strong hands holding gold at the moment rather than those we can's of the hedge funds that had to sell off gold

coming up later in the hour, we taleb,peak with nassim risk engineer at new york university. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> i am guy johnson with bunny quinn. this is bloomberg close. let's begin with a bloomberg first word news. >> european officials are warning against loosening lockdowns. this -- that is after the coronavirus outbreak claimed more than 3000 lives. the total death toll for the two countries is now over 17,000. the pace of infections is showing signs of leveling off. officials are warning against complacency. experts are warning italy to learn from the mistakes china made when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. with mild symptoms instead of having them isolated at home. producing a strain on china's overburdened health-care system, what experts say they did not realize how infectious the virus could be, even in those who do not seem very sick. the prime minister benjamin netanyahu will go into quarantine. he came into contact with an eight who tested positive for the coronavirus. netanyahu and his staff will stay in isolation as they await the results of their t

of what they're saying is precisely what the lancet was saying 2 months ago is precisely what nassim taleb and i have been saying for weeks on end a back of an envelope calculation shows that hundreds of thousands are at risk from this virus if you let it hit most of the population do the same and data brokers are the main brokers doing this going to. 3 is wrong about the science having changed the problem with the b.b.c. coverage is that they've been and the i.t.v. coverage is that they've been far too deferential towards the state they said things like for example well boris johnson is for only following the scientific advice because of course he goes out there flanked by the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser but that doesn't mean they're making the policy the policy was very influenced for example by the knowledge and psychology unit that is close to 10 downing street who were saying look you're not going to be able to convince people to socially isolate the long periods of time therefore you've got to wait before you impose that those kinds of restrictions but that