So I’m going to be critical of Evan Greenberg today. Those who know me know I was an early backer of Evan’s back at Ace and have always been one of his biggest supporters. I was at the head of the Evan bandwagon before there was a wagon. It was Continue Reading
Should US Casualty Switch To Claims Made?
No. How’s that for a short post? But I suppose I should explain my answer. For those that didn’t see, Chubb and Zurich are trying to push the US casualty market to change from occurrence to claims made. I don’t think they will succeed and I don’t think they should. Continue Reading
In Defense of Greedy Billionaires
Yup, you read it right. I’m here to defend billionaires. And not just and greedy billionaires, but the worst of the worst! Sports team owners! Boooooo!!!! What’s the issue? People are mad that the Washington Commanders are building a new stadium and the city of DC is paying for part Continue Reading
The Tangled Web Nvidia Coreweaves
People like to say what is happening in tech today is nothing like the 2000 bubble. Companies are far more profitable and are less speculative, they say. While this is true for the most part, today’s note will point out some striking similarities in behavior today vs. 25 years ago. Continue Reading
Markets Hate Uncertainty
I thought this might be a good time for a brief primer on the likely consequences of the ever evolving US economic policy. One of the first things you learn as an investor is markets hate uncertainty. This is basically a way of stating that people are risk averse so Continue Reading
USAA Has Lost Its Mission
With all the news around California fires, year end earnings, and so on, I didn’t have the chance to write about Juan Andrade leaving Everest Re to take over USAA. I’ve met Juan a number of times over the years and he is a very capable executive. However, USAA needs Continue Reading
How State Farm Lost $8B In California
Yes, they underpriced business and had poor risk management. I think we all know that. But how did it happen? If you saw the recent Wall Street Journal article, you know that a state manager chose to prioritize making the agents happy over making State Farm money. This led to Continue Reading
The California Fires And What Comes Next
As some of you have speculated, I had been planning to write about the California FAIR plan for quite some time, but never quite got around to it. That, unfortunately, is the downside of subscribing to a free newsletter. I have no market incentive to publish in a timely manner! Continue Reading
Predicting the Everest Reserve Charge
One of the big stories to watch for year end earnings will be how many companies will confess that their casualty reserves are still woefully short. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of angst about this, even after the large Swiss Re charge last quarter. Just because management Continue Reading
The Evolving Terror Liability Risk
While it may be too soon to talk about the insurance impact of tragic events, that is what we do in the insurance industry. So, hopefully you will understand my attempt to be clinical here and make some observations about the recent terrorist attacks. The recent spate of car based Continue Reading