`Black Swan' Author Taleb Says Dubai's Economy Is More Robust Than U.S. - Bloomberg

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, whose book “The Black Swan” described how unforeseen events can roil global markets, said Dubai’s economy is more robust than that of the U.S. as its debt problem can be “controlled.”

“Even if you take perhaps the worst of emerging markets, a place like Dubai, you realize Dubai is more robust than the United States,” Taleb said at a mutual funds conference in Manama, Bahrain today. “Dubai has been borrowing to put buildings on postcards. It can stop that, but America needs to borrow just to open the doors in the morning. That’s why I’m not comfortable with the United States.”

Prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008, Taleb warned that bankers were relying too much on probability models and were disregarding the potential for unexpected catastrophes. His book labeled these events black swans, referring to the widely held belief that only white swans existed until black ones were discovered in Australia in 1697, and said that they were becoming more severe.