The Perils Of The Seas Summary

The idea of change, regardless of the context of the situation, terrifies. People find security in the routine, comfort in the normal, and safety in the ordinary. Change, however, rocks the boat. Those things that were once agreed upon unanimously, come under scrutiny. Picture in your mind a situation in which you’re given the opportunity to shift the bottom block in a tower. You know that there is a chance that even a slight change can shift the balance of the tower; upsetting the whole structure and causing it to crumble. On the other hand, instead of causing the tower to fall, the change may instead produce a much more stable, stronger structure. Often the results cannot be determined beforehand; requiring you to either refrain from participating

In the chapter of the book entitled “The Perils of the Seas”, Levy relates how early American’s viewed the events that effected the products of risk as “acts of God”. These “acts of God” were resistant to foresight and uncontrollable events that could bring about the financial ruin of the risk-taker (Levy 44). Come the age of insurance-and the view of risk as an object of exchange- the idea of weighing risk would no longer be a wager against the “acts of God” (Levy 77). A new age of probability emerged, and drastically changed how risks were perceived. Levy uses the writings of actuarian Elizur Wright Jr. to introduce the prospect of “unity” (Levy 81). The fact that economic minds were using probability to find correlations between the present and the future would lead to enormous restructurings of financial institutions. This progression from a compliance to Providence to a respect for probability issued in a new age for finance capitalism. Speculation, though always present in America, soared. With it rose a desire for better risk management. Throughout Freaks of Fortune, Levy depicts how, with growing trust in the ability of financiers to manage risk; the amount of money in the banks surged (131), more and more people began finding security in the purchase of insurances (166), and wealthy entrepreneurs sought to gain capital and reduce risk through development of corporations (284). However, despite the projections and tight management of risk involved behind the scenes, all of these pursuits ended in