The discourse of risk retroactively legitimizes any market outcome.

Evidence

Hence the modern culture of risk is the very embodiment of the neoliberal commandment: there is no such thing as commutative justice, and consequently, the participant must simply acquiesce in the verdict of the market. The discourse of risk, which seems to be forward-looking, in fact stands as the post-hoc justification of any outcome whatsoever. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 343

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the idea that seemingly forward-looking frameworks can be purely retrospective — analogous to the broader critique of how prediction markets and risk models function in the thought collective. — connects to: Risk discourse retroactively moralizes outcomes whose causality it denies beforehand — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 342; Financialization treats risk as probabilisable, displacing close knowledge of the object valued — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 35; Efficient-markets and random-walk theory legitimized options against their scandalous reputation. — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 62 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal restructuring converts collective public goods into individualized risk management #expands (0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 266
• Neoliberalism induces risk-bearing then blames the victims when risk fails #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 351
• Risk of undeserved loss was deliberately required to discipline individuals into market submission #expands (0.77) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 209
• Financialization treats risk as probabilisable, displacing close knowledge of the object valued #complicates (0.75) — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 35
• Securitization converts uncertainty into quantifiable, tradeable risk and shapes daily life #expands (0.75) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 248
• Derivatives let investors tailor risk exposure precisely and have become tradable commodities themselves #epitomizes (0.73) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 478
• Efficient-markets and random-walk theory legitimized options against their scandalous reputation. #expands (0.72) — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 62
• Black-Scholes rhetoric replaced ‘gambling’ with ‘efficient pricing’ in options discourse #expands (0.72) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 705
• Risk emerges only from one’s own decision and action, never from inaction #complicates (0.72)