Tonight on GeekNights, still recording remotely we consider the concept of insurance. Please, if you have better Thursday show ideas throw them at us! In the news, Jojo Rabbit (2019) is extremely good, apparently Henry Kissinger is indeed a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, and Netflix Castlevania is definitely worth continuing.
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Reinsurance.
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Thoughts listening:
A few weeks ago a friend sent me a really interesting article about catastrophe (“cat”) bonds. Insurers don’t like correlated risk - it’s not like Omaha is in danger of every driver crashing on the same day, so an insurance company can safely insure drivers there.
Hurricanes are more of an all-or-nothing proposition though: they do hit every house in a city, or none at all. And paying out a claim for every house in a city/region/state would bankrupt the insurer. So cat bonds are a way for insurers to distribute their risk.
The idea is this: I buy a bond from Insurance-R-Us. It periodically pays me back some amount until the bond matures, when the principal is paid back as well. UNLESS some conditions were met. Like, “a hurricane hit New Orleans that caused $X in property damage”, in which case I get nothing back, and the insurer uses the money to pay out claims.
The article is by Michael Lewis (of Moneyball, The Big Short fame, among others). It’s from 2007, about hurricanes and Katrina and catastrophe bonds.
I work at an insurance company. AMA, I guess.
I’m not sure how you think Scott’s microphone technique is acceptable. Please get him a pop-shield or something.
X-post the evil NCAA:
The NCAA generates most of its revenue from TV and marketing rights from the men’s basketball tournament, along with ticket sales from national championship events.
The NCAA said $50 million will come from its reserves and that it also has a $270 million event cancellation insurance policy
Want to know what disaster is likely? Start figuring out which types of insurance wealthy people and organizations are paying large premiums for.
Yes, I would quite like to know this.
Of course. I know exactly how to do this. I’ll just call Bezos and Apple and the NFL real quick and find out.
Or ask Rym to type it into the Bloomberg terminal and find out.
Triple thread combo! Basketsball, corona, and here.
Regular injuries are one thing. Wonder how you forecast career-ending probabilities of a once-in-a-century pandemic.