"Interconnected networks exhibit a knife-edge, or tipping
point, property. Within a certain range, connections serve as a
shock-absorber. The system acts as a mutual insurance device with
disturbances dispersed and dissipated.
But beyond a certain
range, the system can tip the wrong side of the knife-edge.
Interconnections serve as shock-ampli ers, not dampeners, as losses
cascade. The system acts not as a mutual insurance device but as a mutual incendiary device." Andrew Haldane via Zero Hedge