Flirting with Disaster: Why Accidents Are Rarely Accidental

Chernobyl, Katrina, Challenger, BP, Columbia, Vioxx. These were not unavoidable catastrophes, but disasters that could have been prevented, or whose damages could have been mitigated, if only someone had spoken up. Using case studies ranging from natural disasters and industrial accidents to Enron and the sub-prime lending crisis, Flirting with Disaster examines the psychological, cultural and institutional impediments to whistle-blowing. What Blink did for intuition and Freakonomics did for microeconomics, this page-turner--now in paperback--does for disasters, showing why they happen and how we can try to stop them before they do.