I saw this on the RSS feed from the National Underwriter. IMHO Mr Hartwig (a long time industry shill) has about zero credability with the public and about that much with the new policymakers coming to DC in January. Let’s sample some of the after effects of drinking too much psyclobin mushroom laced kool aid:
“Insurers can definitely make the case that they’re much more stable [than banks] in terms of insolvencies,” said Robert P. Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, during a speech at the 20th annual Executive Conference for the Property-Casualty Industry, presented by The National Underwriter Company, with sponsors Ernst & Young and Dewey & LeBoeuf.
Mr. Hartwig pointed out that few insurers become insolvent, even after major catastrophes, while 19 banks have failed in 2008 alone—including the largest in history, Washington Mutual—all undermined by reckless subprime mortgages and unwise securitizations of such loans. “The toxic chickens have come home to roost,” he said.
If the banks had Uncle Sam’s checkbook like AIG, Hartford and others do now there would have been far less failure. It is sad in a way that insurers, in many cases the same group that fleeced billions from Uncle Sam via claims dumping could not retain enough of the profits to survive this rough patch. From a business standpoint that fact alone speaks volumes about how soft and dependent on USA, Inc. these supposedly private concerns have been for years.
sop
Incredible example of the “blame game” as a “defensive mechanism” – as in, “if those banks had not had all of those bad mortgages, the insurance industry would not have problem from hedging/swapping/catting around with them…this is not the first laugh Mr. Hartwig has provided since Katrina, wonder if he just flies in from Mars or keeps a place on this planet, too?
Bwhaaaahahahahaha…
That is like hearing Alice discuss ping’pong from inside that Gimp Suit on Pulp Fiction! Hahahahahahaha
So far my by my rough calculations of noting Re Insurance losses alone, we are looking at somewhere far north of 100 Billion. That is only considering the Big Re’s.
This is Fucking Ridiculous! Please pardon my Gall.
The thing that makes slabbed so significant is this: IT’S THE INSURERS STUPID!!!!
The Thing is not finished by a long shot. Milton Friedman had much bigger plans than this.
Shock Deliberate.
I had to hang a General Link to slabbed today. We are trying a new thing at da’Ladder where we do a Morning and Evening editions and Doucy’s up top fit perfectly but then Oh there’s the State Farm Anthropologists and then Uh Oh here we have Economics and Mushroom Tea?
Jeez Louie.
Thusly Slabbed.
This is really what the young kids today are calling Karma. Others call it poetic justice. We can only hope Mr. Hartwig will be able to explain his unique regulatory theories to Congress next year. The problems are getting so big that talking points cannot be made to cover up for the problems a lack of regulation has upon the industry. It is really sad nobody in the industry seems to care they are going down the tubes because of the lack of regulation. We really are the shareholders, taxpayers and consumers best friend. Only people who really lose under our system of change for the industry are crooks and greedy CEO’s.