Insurance

Finance may seem like the crown jewel of modern institutions—replete with contracts, algorithms, and global markets. But what if its deepest logic predates banks, money, and even language? In a compelling new paper, Finance as Extended Biology (arXiv:2506.00099), Egil Diau argues that the cognitive substrate of finance is not institutional architecture but reciprocity—a fundamental behavioral mechanism observed in primates and ancient human societies alike. Credit, insurance, token exchange, and investment, he contends, are not designed structures but emergent transformations of this ancient cooperative logic. ...

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” has long been gospel in finance and risk management. But what if sometimes, the basket is the safer place? In a surprising twist on conventional wisdom, Léonard Vincent’s latest paper presents the one-basket theorem: a theoretical framework that proves diversification can increase risk under certain extreme but relevant conditions. Specifically, when dealing with heavy-tailed risks that have infinite mean — such as those found in insurance, operational risk, and even crypto markets — putting all your eggs in one basket may be the rational choice. ...