Krise der Finanzmärkte, Krise der Risikoindividualisierung

The recent financial crisis is also a crisis of the individualisation of risk. The latter has contributed to the expansion of the financial sector by increasing household debt, mortgage credit and private pension accounts. Financial innovations, intended to transfer risk from the banking to the household sector, have led to an underestimation of risks accumulated in the financial sector. When the crisis broke out, risk which was thought to have been privatised returned to the financial sector, and later on to the state, Initial reform efforts presume that minor modifications of the rules governing the financial sector would allow a continuation of the current path of development, The future distribution of risk within society and the role of the financial sector in managing it are topics which have not been on the agenda in post crisis debates so far.