White and Black Swan Events

English for Economists | Economic News and English Expressions

A swan is a beautiful bird that swims in the water. White swans are very common, but you don’t believe a black swan exists until you see one for yourself. The term Black Swan was popularized by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a renowned professor, economist, and writer. Taleb initially introduced this concept to describe highly improbable events with massive implications in financial markets and later broadened its application to encompass historical, scientific, and other significant occurrences. Nobody sees the coming, and when they do, people say ‘oh, why didn’t we see this coming?’