One of the keys to rational risk assessment is to assess the risk of doing something versus the risk of not doing something.

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Risk analysis, and balancing cost and risk, is something the insurance industry has been doing for centuries.

ECONOMIST: Putting it all together

"Doing something like this runs a huge risk of entrenching in investors' minds the perception that Apple has become a value company, " said Anant Sundaram, a professor of finance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth who personally owns Apple shares.

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