Thursday, March 11, 2010
| Make Florida More Hurricane-Resistant
published: Sep 28, 2009
by: Eli Lehrer and John Hallman
As hurricane-ridden September passes by, much of the news in Florida appears good: Hurricanes, so far, have stayed away from U.S. coastlines, the Legislature has passed a few common-sense reforms to the state's property insurance system and state CFO Alex Sink says that the state's troubled Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (Cat Fund) has gained a firmer fiscal footing. more... |
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| A catastrophe waiting to happen
published: Sep 15, 2009
by: Jonathan Orszag
This month marks the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. That raises a simple question: Are we prepared as a Nation for the next mega-catastrophe (one, perhaps, worse than Katrina) that will inevitably strike our country? more... |
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| The Meltdown Next Time: The financial danger nobody knows about.
published: Sep 12, 2009
by: Eli Lehrer
When the insurance giant American International Group was threatened with collapse in late 2008, its credit default swap business and other international operations were cited as the heart of its troubles. But the largest consequence of AIG's uncontrolled failure on consumers' pocketbooks could have come from the domino-like collapse of its businesses writing insurance on boats, cars, homes, lives, and just about everything else. If these businesses fell apart as a result of AIG's overall collapse, the argument went, the contagion could have brought a collapse of everything from retirement savings plans to auto insurance claims payments from companies unconnected to AIG. (In theory, the operations were firewalled from AIG's other operations, but the extremely slow rate at which they've found buyers indicates that many had significant exposure to the company's other woes.) more... |
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CEI Launches Website Condemning 'Beach House Bailout' |
by: Eli Lehrer and Richard Morrison
published: Jun 22, 2009
New Site Offers News, Information on policies That Benefit Beachfront Property Owners
The Competitive Enterprise Institute today announced the formal launch of a new website devoted to news and information about legislative proposals that Congress is considering for a national catastrophe fund. CEI experts say that the proposal amounts to a ''beach house bailout'' that could put taxpayers on the hook for bailing out the beach-front property of the super-wealthy.
The site, nobeachhousebailiouts.org, will be the go-to site for the national catastrophe fund issue. ''Currently, Congress is looking at foolish legislation that would create a taxpayer burden to bailout wealthy celebrities like Madonna, O.J. Simpson, Bernie Madoff, and Anna Kournikova,'' explains CEI Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer, the team leader for CEI's insurance project. ''We want to expose the absurdity of this kind of government intervention in the property insurance market.''
''CEI is already the leading think tank on cat fund issues with numerous studies, publications, and editorials, but we wanted to create a place where all the information relevant to the cat fund debate can be found in one place'' says CEI Policy Analyst Verlan Lewis, the site's administrator. ''This website does it.''
The website features a petition that visitors can sign to express their disgust for government intervention that bails out the super-wealthy with taxpayer dollars. In addition to a substantial library of resource documents that visitors can access for information about the national catastrophe fund debate, the website will also be constantly updated with the latest news reports about the status of the legislation.
Contacts:
Richard Morrison, 202-331-2273
Eli Lehrer, 202-331-2283
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