Forecasting the financial markets is often a mug’s game

The Black Swan is back and I’m not talking about something that paddles around the Lough in Cork City, particularly at this time of year.

Instead, there are a number of huge unpredicted events taking place in financial markets that once again remind us of about flawed human arrogance that we can predict the future.

Last week it was the Swiss National Bank, that country’s Central Bank, which dropped a bombshell. It decided to stop a system that was used to peg the Swiss franc to the euro for the past four years.