One cause of the financial crisis was financial institutions’ appetite for selecting (and in some cases, creating) products with above-average returns in normal times but excessive losses in exceptional cases. Old nuclear-power plants in seismic zones have a similar payoff structure.
金融危机的其中一个成因就是金融机构的欲望：它们倾向于选择或者（在某些案例中）创造一些在平时能获得更高回报但却会在意外中造成极大损失的金融产品，而那些位处地震带上的老旧核电站也有类似的支付结构（payoff structure）。此外，无论是金融还是核电的风险模型似乎都未能正确意识到多种风险之间的彼此联系。