Foolproof
A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
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- €3.99
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- €3.99
Publisher Description
Why anti-lock brakes make us drive faster
Why saving money can lead to financial crises
How football helmets make the game more dangerous
Why letting forest fires burn can be safer than putting them out
We have learned a staggering amount about human nature and disaster-yet we are continually unprepared for car crashes, floods, and financial crises. Partly this is because the very success we've had making life safer enables us to take more extreme, different risks. As our cities, transport systems, and financial markets become more interconnected and complex, so does the potential for disaster.
How do we stay safe? Should we? What if our attempts are exposing us even more to the very risks we are trying to avoid? What if acceptance of danger ultimately makes us more secure and prosperous? Is there such a thing as foolproof?
In this fascinating account of risk-taking and crisis, Greg Ip presents a macro theory of human nature and disaster that explains how we can keep ourselves safe in our increasingly dangerous world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ip, chief economics commentator for the Wall Street Journal, takes on the well-intentioned but flawed impulse to completely safeguard oneself from disaster. In his opinion, the universal urges to achieve success and seek safety often lead to failure and danger. When peril is recent or vivid in memory, people are more cautious: for example, Wall Street brokers who have not gone through a crash are likely to take more risks, and often return better results, than those who have. But the longer the time between one danger and the next, the less urgent the drive for caution. Ip ties many of the catastrophes of the last 10 years to this phenomenon and suggests that the world's increasingly interconnected transport, finances, and communications also have increased risks. He sees the impulse to "make things bigger and more complicated" as one that conflicts with the urge to ensure safety. The best solution would be a happy medium between safety and risk, but humans have consistently failed to find this balance. Tackling subjects that include forest fires, Paul Volcker's economics, and savings vs. debt, Ip entwines economics and psychology to show how to "maximize the units of innovation we get per unit of instability." This is a thoughtful, entertaining read for those interested in the inner workings of global risk management.
