*  *  Systemic risk analysis and the Sybilline books  Dear colleagues, Referring to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe the Minister of Finance of Poland, Jacek Rostowski, mentioned that the negotiations remind him of the story of the purchase of the Sibylline Books in Ancient Rome.
Those books contained prophecies which were not an exact forecast of future events but had to be understood as an aid to finding measures to prevent and manage a devastating disaster. The last king of Ancient Rome, the legendary Tarquinius Superbus, was eager to acquire those nine Sibylline Books.