Taleb argued in The Black Swan against unfettered globalization, saying it would cause big systemic effects driven by governments propping up large companies.

True if the text of The Black Swan (2007, or the 2010 second edition published before July 2017) argues against globalization or a highly interconnected global system because it would cause large systemic effects or failures, and links this to governments propping up or protecting large companies (such as banks). Mostly true if the book clearly warns that globalization and interconnection create systemic fragility, but the link to government support for large firms is only implied or appears in a different section or the 2010 postscript. Mixed if the book warns about globalization and systemic risk but does not discuss governments propping up large companies, or does so only in a separate context. Mostly false if the book only touches on globalization in passing without arguing against it as a source of systemic effects. False if the book contains no such argument.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan fooledbyrandomness.com (Taleb's own site) · 5 October 2008 Own record

   “Globalization creates interlocking fragility, while reducing volatility and giving the appearance of stability. In other words it creates devastating Black Swans. We have never lived before under the threat of a global collapse.”

2. E2 Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan fooledbyrandomness.com (Taleb's own site) · 5 October 2008 Own record

   “The government-sponsored institution Fannie Mae, when I look at its risks, seems to be sitting on a barrel of dynamite, vulnerable to the slightest hiccup. But not to worry: their large staff of scientists deemed these events "unlikely".”

3. E3 Secret of the Black Swan - how a trader forecast the crash and cashed in Evening Standard (standard.co.uk) · 11 April 2012

   “He warned specifically of the dangers from mortgage finance giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.”

4. E4 The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb afuzzyrants (WordPress blog) · 8 May 2020

   “What is fragile should break early, while it’s still small. Nothing should ever become too big to fail.”

The independent evidence shows only that Taleb warned about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac [E3] and that the book says nothing should become too big to fail [E4]; neither shows the book arguing against globalization as a source of systemic effects. The only globalization passage is on Taleb's own site [E1], and its quote does not establish that it is the book's text.