The Messy (and Risky) Ways That Governments Try to Manage Risks

We are at serious risk because of the subjective nature of the way all these factors shape the risk management policy making we depend on to protect us. But in a democracy there is no way around this mess, because of the very subjective nature of ‘risk’ itself.

→ Scientific American

The Utter Fragility Of The Eurozone: Even Democracy Is A Threat

They all document with their own words just how fragile the Eurozone has become. Every little thing can break it apart. Democracy itself, instead of being a fundamental strength, is seen as a threat: if the “wrong” party or an anti-establishment populist or an anti-austerity billionaire gains the most votes in one country, the entire 17-nation construct might break apart.

→ Zero Hedge

Too Fast To Fail: Is High-Speed Trading the Next Wall Street Disaster?

But why stop there? One trading engineer has proposed positioning a line of drones over the ocean, where they would flash microwave data from one to the next like the chain of mountaintop signal fires in The Lord of the Rings. “At what point do you say, ‘This is fast enough’?” asks Brent Weisenborn, a former NASDAQ vice president.

→ Mother Jones