Perhaps there are probability distributions which give the appearance of being normal distributions, but in fact are not.

FORBES: Christmas, Kurtosis, Fat Tails, Black Swans And Risk Management, Pt. 2

Researchers in finance tell us that investment returns from financial assets follow normal distributions and thus are random.

FORBES: Wise Up: 'Normal' Market Behavior Is Not Normal But Crazy Is

Researchers in economics tell us that the various data points in our economy follow normal distributions and thus are random.

FORBES: Wise Up: 'Normal' Market Behavior Is Not Normal But Crazy Is

What does all of this have to do with Kurtosis (and what is that anyway?) and normal distributions and black swans and risk management?

FORBES: Christmas, Kurtosis, Fat Tails, Black Swans and Risk Management