Nassim Taleb believes in
probabilities, not predictions, but at times it can be hard to
tell the difference. “The real Black Swan event,” he said in
June, “is that people are not rioting against the banks in
London and New York.”

Taleb saw it coming, and his well-publicized remark may be
the only reason Occupy Wall Street hasn’t been labeled a black
swan. This once-rare bird, made ubiquitous by Taleb’s best-
selling 2007 book of the same title, now appears so often after
dramatic events, such as Occupy Wall Street, that sightings of
it have become meaningless.