Foolproof: Why Safety Can Be Dangerous and How Danger Makes Us Safe

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. [em](Oct.) [/em]