Risk is always relative!

Sir, John Gapper titles a bit prematurely "The return of high-risk optimism" May 1, when in fact we are yet only going through "the coming home of low-risk pessimism" phase; and in fact he mostly discusses the losses on "safe securities".

What is finally true is that risk itself is a very relative concept and I have argued for years that while all those low risk instruments could be truly low risk instruments from a financial investment perspective, they could just the same be the most risky investment from a long term societal development point of view. For instance the "safe" financing of cars placed in the perspective of the climate change threats.