The article discusses a method to figure out how much extra return investors demand for taking on risk when investing in individual stocks. The researchers looked at a large dataset of US stocks from 1964 to 2009 and found that risk premiums can change a lot during times of crisis. These premiums don't stay the same over time and can be influenced by economic cycles. The study also shows that the traditional way of estimating risk premiums might not be accurate for individual stocks.