Actuarial science

Insurance works because many separate uncertainties become calculable together, and it fails exactly where the risks hang on one another: a storm does not hit one customer but ten thousand on the same day. The word to carry away is el fondo, in los fondos propios admisibles. Spanish uses it for the bottom of a thing — el fondo del mar; for the background behind a figure — un fondo blanco; for the substance of a matter, in en el fondo tiene razón; and, in the plural, for money set aside, which is the sense here. English keeps « bottom », « background », « the heart of it » and « funds » apart, and the Spanish reader has one word standing for all four.