As market pressure is put on leading central banks to maintain their highly expansionary monetary policies, the risk of irreversibility is becoming increasingly prevalent, writes Patrick Artus, chief economist at Natixis

They say no-one except Vince Cable saw the global financial crisis coming. They couldn’t be more wrong

But are the ratings agencies an empire in decline?

If an insurer sets a premium based on the average probability of a loss in an entire population, those at higher-than-average risk for a certain hazard will benefit most from coverage, and hence will be the most likely to purchase insurance for that hazard