Cautionary Tales Captain Coward and the Blame Game

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Off the coast of an Italian island, an enormous cruise ship – seventeen floors high, three soccer pitches long – is tilting noticeably to one side. The local mayor is horrified: there are thousands of people on board the Costa Concordia, and it’s only a matter of time before the ship capsizes altogether. How did a routine trip go so terribly wrong? And why is the captain nowhere to be found?

For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.

The Host

Tim Harford

Tim Harford’s long-running column in the Financial Times, “The Undercover Economist,” reveals the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. His first book, The Undercover Economist, was published in 30 languages and sold…