From Five Ways of Looking at Risk.

With financial alarm bells sounding, most of the nation -- including the country's business and political leadership -- has woken up to a forgotten truth: Government plays a vital role in managing risk. Since the start of the economic crisis, federal officials from both the Bush and Obama administrations have gone to extraordinary lengths to contain a mounting systemic threat, committing in excess of $10 trillion for ad-hoc financial rescues, emergency federal guarantees, and fiscal stimulus. Inaction in the face of a calamity of this magnitude would have been unimaginable, not to mention politically suicidal.