One way to think about the 21st century so far is in terms of three successive waves of risk: financial, political, existential. In the years leading up to 2008, appalling risks were being taken in the global Las Vegas of deregulated casino capitalism. Anyone fretting about these risks was told: “We have it under control. Ordinary citizens then discovered that, while the rewards had gone overwhelmingly to a tiny elite, the risks had been borne all along, unknowingly, by the little people. Better, in his warped logic, to go with the liars who were honest enough to lie openly.

Source: The Irish Times March 17, 2020 05:00 UTC