Lack of disasters disastrous

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Last updated on May 20th, 2017 at 07:29 am

Insurance companies have lately sought to cash in on climate hysteria:

Many coastal property owners in North Carolina have seen their insurance rates increase 25 percent since May …

“I know everybody on the coast is suffering from high insurance rates,” said William Baggett, an owner of the oceanfront Blockade Runner hotel in Wrightsville Beach. He said his rates have quadrupled since 2005. “I don’t think they are quite justified.”

That report from last year. But things have since turned around:

Lloyd’s of London warned yesterday that an absence last year of natural disasters or man-made accidents was putting pressure on firms to reduce premiums in 2008.

The world’s oldest and biggest insurance market said that though the lack of major disasters had allowed firms to push up profits 5% in 2007, underwriting margins were being squeezed … two years of relatively few claims for environmental damage have increased competition in the sector.

Via Norway’s prime blogger VamPus (“I don’t see money as the root of all evil, I see work, ambitions and talent as the root of the money”), who curtly remarks:

Knis.

Posted by Tim B. on 04/04/2008 at 02:19 PM
    1. I reckon this will be spun by insurance companies and regulators thus:

      “Reserves must be built up against disasters just around the corner, when Glowbull Warmenatization really, really does come true.”

      Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2008 04 04 at 02:55 PM • permalink

 

    1. Yumpin’ yimminy! Dat Heidi Nordby Lunde (VamPus) is vun preety gurl! Vhy, her eyes remind me of de Sognefjord dat time venn I was a young man in de ald country and fell off a herring boat. An’ I see dat her civil status is : “Singel, med katt.” Yew single fellers out dere could do a whole lot vurse, by golly!

      Posted by paco on 2008 04 04 at 03:18 PM • permalink

 

    1. I’m glad she doesn’t see money as the root of all evil.

      Pedants and fact checkers, know the provenance of that phrase as 1 Timothy 6:8-10 in the New Testament.

      In Greek:

      ἔχοντες δὲ διατροφὰς σκεπάσματα τούτοις ἀρκεσθησόμεθα δὲ βουλόμενοι ἐμπίπτουσιν εἰς πειρασμὸν παγίδα καὶ ἐπιθυμίας πολλὰς ἀνοήτους καὶ βλαβεράς αἵτινες βυθίζουσιν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους εἰς ὄλεθρον καὶ ἀπώλειαν ῥίζα γὰρ πάντων τῶν κακῶν ἐστιν ἡ φιλαργυρία ἧς τινες ὀρεγόμενοι ἀπεπλανήθησαν ἀπὸ τῆς πίστεως καὶ ἑαυτοὺς περιέπειραν ὀδύναις πολλαῖς

      A translation (Hobbins):

      . . . so if we have food and clothing, let us be content with that. But those who long to be rich fall into temptation and into a trap and into many senseless and harmful desires which plunge people into ruin and destruction. The root of all evil is the love of money, in pursuit of which some have wandered from the faith and spiked themselves on many a painful thorn.

      They can also spot the difference.

      Posted by saint on 2008 04 04 at 03:19 PM • permalink

 

    1. #3 common mistake, misquoting that verse.

      Posted by missred on 2008 04 04 at 03:37 PM • permalink

 

    1. #4 missred

      Including the left-wing and/or socialist parties of every Western democracy.

      Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 04 04 at 04:11 PM • permalink

 

    1. Since I used to be in the disaster recovery business, might I point out that since Katrina there hasn’t been squat for my old pals to do.  Since many of them are independent contractors who only get work when there’s work to do, most of them have moved on to other lines.

      To add an insult to this problem, FEMA has reacted in typical knee-jerk fashion since Katrina, and increased the scope of work for inspectors which has, naturally, made the work more time consuming and less profitable.

      So, basically, the entire cadre of experienced inspectors is no longer available, and many wouldn’t return to the work now because it isn’t the same job with the same profit potential anymore.  Even those who did return would have to be retrained.

      If there was a huge disaster now, like a 9.0 earthquake in San Francisco, for example, it would be yet another massive cluster-fuck.

      I don’t know how many times I’ve heard my old buds say to me, “You got out at just the right time” or something similar.

      Mark my words, unless there is a run-up of small disasters to rebuild the cadre of inspectors again, the next “big one” will be far worse than Katrina was.  With katrina, the FEMA contractors had a huge cadre of experienced inspectors, and it was still a massive pile of shit.

      Posted by Hucbald on 2008 04 04 at 04:31 PM • permalink

 

    1. It never hurts to be prepared.  The problem is, whatever you prepare for isn’t going to be the thing that happens.

      Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 04 04 at 04:36 PM • permalink

 

    1. Actually, there is no definite article before “root” in the Greek text; “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” is an equally valid translation. (Don’t argue with me; I know a little Greek)

      Posted by AlburyShifton on 2008 04 04 at 05:01 PM • permalink

 

    1. #8 i am sure there are all kinds of roots of evil
      (did that make sense? three buck chuck on a friday evening is a wonderful thing)

      Posted by missred on 2008 04 04 at 06:43 PM • permalink

 

    1. I know a little Greek
      His name’s Stavros and he owns the fruit shop down the road. Ta-daa!I did a quick Google search for ‘knis’ but couldn’t get a translation – any ideas? I get the sense that it comes out as a contemptuous snort.

      Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2008 04 04 at 06:50 PM • permalink

 

    1. @ 4, Paco

      Hubba Hubba Hubba! Now, first project. How does one get rid of the cat?

      @ 10 SC

      “Knis” = giggle.

      Posted by Mikael on 2008 04 04 at 07:20 PM • permalink

 

    1. “OMIGOD!  We’re not all going to die!  This is really going to cost us!”

      Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 04 04 at 07:26 PM • permalink

 

    1. #9—I’m up for an evil root, if my back holds out.

      “I ain’t as good as I was once,
      But I’m as good once as I ever was…” –Toby Keith

      Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 04 04 at 07:28 PM • permalink

 

    1. root, number multiplied by itself sounds like insurance, they actuary do not know.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 04 at 08:24 PM • permalink

 

    1. The correct way to look at, “the love of money is a/the root of all (kinds of) evil” is to understand that the love of money is a form of covetousness.

      There is a reason that the Commands of God begin with, “I am the Lord your God” and end with, “You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s”: – it’s like a top-down, or God’s Eye, view of the metaphorical Three of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – the end result of all sin is Godlessness, and the beginning of all sin is covetousness (Or lust, envy, jealousy).  It is the unholy desire that is the true root of all evil, and that leads to all of the other sins listed in the Commands of God.  The love of money is just one of the major players, so to speak.

      Which is why, by the way, that Jesus was able to summarize the Commands of God as, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”: If you do that, you won’t seduce your neighbor’s wife, you won’t steal from him, or kill him, &c.

      Posted by Hucbald on 2008 04 04 at 08:38 PM • permalink

 

    1. “My hovercraft is full of eels.”

      Posted by Kaboom on 2008 04 04 at 08:43 PM • permalink

 

    1. #15

      Which is why, by the way, that Jesus was able to summarize the Commands of God as, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”: If you do that, you won’t seduce your neighbor’s wife, you won’t steal from him, or kill him, &c.

      Akin to: ‘do unto others …’

      Methinks the downward spiral commences when a narcissistic person sees (others) as inferior, thus not worthy of the treatment they expect of themselves: ‘some pigs are more equal’

      Posted by egg_ on 2008 04 04 at 09:32 PM • permalink

 

    1. (Don’t argue with me; I know a little Greek)

      I know a couple actually.

      Posted by Contrail on 2008 04 05 at 01:08 AM • permalink

 

    1. Mark my words, unless there is a run-up of small disasters to rebuild the cadre of inspectors again, the next “big one” will be far worse than Katrina was.  With katrina, the FEMA contractors had a huge cadre of experienced inspectors, and it was still a massive pile of shit.

      Hucbald, without going into a long boring rant, I will merely endorse your conclusion.  Spot on, dude.

      Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 04 05 at 09:50 AM • permalink

 

    1. #19.  Problem is, Jeff, FEMA can only EVER be ready for disasters with between 5K and 30K applicants.  When you get into massive events with 100K to 500K applicants, it is going to be an ugly slog no matter what (BTDT).

      1M+ applicants?  Chaos.

      Posted by Hucbald on 2008 04 06 at 12:34 AM • permalink

 

  1. Insurance, the white man’s burden

    Posted by Pickles on 2008 04 06 at 07:01 PM • permalink