Catastrophe: Risk and Response

✍ Scribed by Richard A. Posner

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 333
• Edition: First Edition and First Printing
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This is a very interesting book but it didn't quite grab me. It is a very academic book, almost like a text book. This book would make a better lecture. Most of his meat in the book comes from economic cost benefit analysis. That information probably comes across better in a lecture.

First the author lays out various threats to not only the country but to the world. He does donate a lot to the end of the world stuff like an asteroid hitting the earth. Then he talks a lot about how to express that danger. He also goes into how to express that risk. That is an interesting thing. The expression of the risk helps society express the worth of solutions. The author goes into standard explanation of present value vs. future value. His method of explaining that response is really interesting. For example he explains how society puts a price value on lives.

His last chapter is a departure of the book style. He has some interesting solutions. Those solutions is a big departure for a judge, but nothing to radical.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 10
Introduction......Page 14
What is catastrophe?......Page 16
The organization of this book......Page 23
Some useful distinctions......Page 26
Natural catastrophes......Page 32
Scientifc accidents......Page 41
Other unintended man-made catastrophes......Page 54
Intentional catastrophes......Page 82
Catastrophic synergies and lesser-included catastrophes......Page 100
2 Why so little is being done about the catastrophic risks......Page 103
Cultural factors......Page 104
Psychological factors......Page 130
Economic factors......Page 134
3 How to evaluate the catastrophic risks and the possible responses to them......Page 150
The difference cost-benefit analysis can make: the case of RHIC......Page 151
A modest version of the precautionary principle......Page 159
Discounting to present value......Page 161
Taxes, subsidies, and options: the case of global warming......Page 166
Valuing human lives......Page 176
Risk versus uncertainty......Page 182
Coping with uncertainty......Page 186
Politics, expertise, and neutrality: RHIC revisited......Page 198
Summary......Page 207
4 How to reduce the catastrophic risks......Page 210
Institutional reforms......Page 211
Fiscal tools: a recap......Page 226
Some hypothetical regulatory policies......Page 227
Conclusion......Page 256
Notes......Page 278
B......Page 326
C......Page 327
G......Page 328
L......Page 329
P......Page 330
S......Page 331
V......Page 332
Z......Page 333