Risk taxonomy: Difference between revisions

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But ''legal'' risks ''aren’t like books''. They aren’t physical things. They aren’t concrete. They are ''un''concrete. They’re amorphous, will-o’-the-wisp, [[black swan]]s: they [[emergent|emerge]], coagulating in mid air like suffocating ectoplasms, from ''nowhere''. They are obstreperous phantoms, silently incubating in harmless, dusty corners so [[tedious|dreary]] we can scarcely bring ourselves to even pay them attention until, to our horror, we see it is too late.<ref>Like the BBA’s process for setting the sleepy old [[London Inter Bank Offered Rate]]. Anyone [https://www.google.com/search?&q=libor+%22mundane%22+%22boring%22 remember that old yawnfest]?</ref>  
But ''legal'' risks ''aren’t like books''. They aren’t physical things. They aren’t concrete. They are ''un''concrete. They’re amorphous, will-o’-the-wisp, [[black swan]]s: they [[emergent|emerge]], coagulating in mid air like suffocating ectoplasms, from ''nowhere''. They are obstreperous phantoms, silently incubating in harmless, dusty corners so [[tedious|dreary]] we can scarcely bring ourselves to even pay them attention until, to our horror, we see it is too late.<ref>Like the BBA’s process for setting the sleepy old [[London Inter Bank Offered Rate]]. Anyone [https://www.google.com/search?&q=libor+%22mundane%22+%22boring%22 remember that old yawnfest]?</ref>  


In the last twenty years the global finance industry has faced some proper, existential threats. It has [[Jenseits von Gut und Böse|looked long into the abyss]]. [[LTCM]]. [[LIBOR]]. [[Madoff]]. [[Dotcom]]. [[Lehman]]. ''None of these epochal shit-shows registered more than a faint pulse in the frame of consciousness of the most paranoid [[risk controller]] '''until they happened'''''.  
In the last twenty years the global finance industry has faced some proper, existential threats. It has [[Jenseits von Gut und Böse|looked long into the abyss]]. [[LTCM]]. [[LIBOR]]. [[Madoff]]. [[Dotcom]]. [[Lehman]]. None of these epochal shit-shows registered more than a faint pulse in the frame of consciousness of the most paranoid [[risk controller]] ''until they happened''.  


Nor will the next one. Risks happen “when” everyone is looking in another, wrong, direction. '''Risks happen ''because'' everyone is looking in another, wrong direction'''. So why will everyone be looking in another, wrong direction?  BECAUSE THEIR [[risk taxonomy|RISK TAXONOMY]] IS TELLING THEM TO. Their [[risk taxonomy]] ''is'' that other, wrong direction.
''Nor will the next one''. Risks happen ''when''everyone is looking in another, wrong, direction. '''Risks happen ''because'' everyone is looking in another, wrong direction'''. So why will everyone be looking in another, wrong direction?  BECAUSE THEIR [[risk taxonomy|RISK TAXONOMY]] IS TELLING THEM TO. Their [[risk taxonomy]] ''is'' that other, wrong direction.


In this way, the [[risk taxonomy]], itself, ''is'' the risk. New risks will, by definition, inhibit the seams, cracks and weak joints of your present narrative — they will prompt you, after the fact, to change your [[narrative]]. They will prompt you to build a new stable around the space where the horse ''you didn’t even know was there'' turns out to have been standing, before it bolted.  
In this way, the [[risk taxonomy]], itself, ''is'' the risk. New risks will, by definition, inhibit the seams, cracks and weak joints of your present narrative — they will prompt you, after the fact, to change your [[narrative]]. They will prompt you to build a new stable around the space where the horse ''you didn’t even know was there'' turns out to have been standing, before it bolted.