[pjc50]

Not all risk is equal, and there can be no implied right to risk-free preservation of capital.

What the banks would like people to do is invest in productive capacity and consumer goods; this feeds the "virtuous circle" of employment and economic growth. Investing in businesses would have a normal, uncorrelated risk profile.

What I think people are struggling with is the prospect of big, correlated, exogenous risks like global warming and the collapse of global trade into protectionism. If that kind of thing happens the total amount of value in the economy goes down - so who bears that risk? Do we try to distribute it equally, or put it all on governments which may not be able to bear that kind of systemic collapse? Or do we let the capital-holding class protect themselves while real wages collapse and the risk falls on those least able to bear it?