Fire at The Beverly Hills Supper Club (Update)

In 'The Unthinkable', Amanda Ripley delves into the human responses to some of history’s most epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917 to the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. She consults leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts to understand the psychological and neurological aspects of survival. The book outlines the 'survival arc' of denial, deliberation, and decision, and provides practical advice on increasing one’s chances of survival in disaster scenarios. It also explores themes such as crowd psychology, the brain’s fear circuits, and the role of heroism and resilience in the face of disaster.

The Ostrich Paradox addresses the question of why humans consistently fail to prepare for disastrous risks despite having the ability to foresee them. The book identifies six cognitive biases—Myopia Bias, Amnesia Bias, Optimism Bias, Inertia Bias, Simplification Bias, and Herding Bias—that hinder disaster preparedness. It proposes a Behavioral Risk Audit as a systematic approach to improve preparedness by recognizing and addressing these biases.

In this book, Thomas E. Woods, Jr. challenges the common narrative that deregulation and free markets led to the 2008 financial crisis. Instead, he argues that government interventions, such as those through Fannie Mae and the Community Redevelopment Act, were the primary causes of the housing bubble and subsequent market collapse. Woods also critiques government bailouts, suggesting they exacerbate the problems rather than solve them. The book provides a detailed explanation of Austrian business cycle theory and its application to the crisis, as well as a historical context comparing the government's response to the Great Depression.