The OFR released a working paper today entitled, "Measuring the Unmeasurable: An Application of Uncertainty Quantification to Financial Portfolios."
This paper says uncertainty is a crucial factor in financial stability, but it is notoriously difficult to measure. This working paper uses techniques from engineering to quantify fundamental economic uncertainty, and applies the method to an example of portfolio stress testing. By this measure, uncertainty peaked in late 2008.
The working paper is posted on the OFR website at: http://financialresearch.gov/working-papers/.
The OFR home page is at: http://financialresearch.gov.