Attention Economy


Friday, May 8, 2020

The Fat Tails – Crisis Risk in the Anthropocene Era

'We are living through the first economic crisis of the Anthropocene'
Columbia University Historian Adam Tooze notes:
“Faced with the crisis, Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump have cut ludicrous figures. But they express a deep desire to deny the significance of the shock. Who would not rather think that this was simply the flu? Given this temptation, what we should guard against is not open displays of denial but the soft alternative. Covid-19, like the unprecedented hurricanes and devastating fires of 2019, will be dismissed as a freak of nature. That is comforting. It will be good for business in the short run. But it sets us up for another crisis. If it is right that Covid-19 is a crisis like no other, what is to be feared is that there will be more like it to come”