Op-Eds
Catastrophe Fund: Florida System Dangerously Unstable
As September passed by, much of the news here in Florida appears good: Hurricanes have stayed away from U.S. coastlines, the Legislature has passed…
Op-Eds
Don’t Drive Away Auto Insurers
In recent weeks, political leaders have vented their anger at Michigan’s auto insurers. State Sen. Martha Scott held a rally at the capital in…
Op-Eds
The Mania of Central Planning
Lansing, Mich. Coleman Young II is on a roll. Standing outside of the Michigan legislature’s baronial house chamber, the young politician, scion of…
Op-Eds
Make Florida More Hurricane-Resistant
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…
Op-Eds
Floridians Still On Hook to Pay for Hurricane Destruction
Even if Florida avoids catastrophe during the 2009 hurricane season, the state’s system for insuring itself against storms will remain dangerously unstable.
Op-Eds
The Meltdown Next Time
When the insurance giant American International Group was threatened with collapse in late 2008, its credit default swap business and other international operations were…
Op-Eds
New Dem Tax for Speculators Will Hurt Individual Investors
Some Democrats in Congress and their Big Labor allies at the AFL-CIO are pushing a tax proposal intended to reduce stock market speculation.
Op-Eds
Coastal Insurance Reforms a Good Start
When he took office at the beginning the year, Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin set his sights on North Carolina’s broken coastal insurance system. Now…
Op-Eds
Government Run-Health Coops Would be Different
Re: "The insurance co-op is already in your neighborhood," Aug. 19 State Farm is an admirably run insurer, but its structure may…
Op-Eds
What Caused the Chino Riot
Overcrowding gives rise to many problems in prisons but, with good management, even an overcapacity prison will almost never to erupt into massive violence.
Op-Eds
Insurance Against Terrorism
After hijackers destroyed the World Trade Center on 9/11, taxpayers ended up spending a lot of money to aid the injured, rebuild public infrastructure, improve…
Op-Eds
Limited Government Role Seen in Tackling Catastrophe Risks
Q: What role should the federal government play in setting natural catastrophe policy? The federal government certainly has a role to play…
Op-Eds
How Should the Census Count Prisoners?
In today’s New York Times, NYU law professor Anthony Thompson takes on the interesting issue of how those in prison should be counted in…
Op-Eds
California’s Prison Problem
A federal judge has ordered California to cut the size of its largest-in-the-nation prison system by almost 43,000 inmates. The system is overcrowded,…
Op-Eds
Health Reform Can’t Copy Auto Insurance
Republicans and Democrats have looked to auto insurance as a model for reforming an expensive health care system that leaves millions without coverage and…
Op-Eds
Protection Is a Team Effort
Floridians, don't let the current lack of hurricane activity lull you into a false sense of security. As a low-lying peninsula jutting out into the…
Op-Eds
Auto Insurance Works – So Why Doesn’t Health Insurance
Those looking for solutions to America’s health insurance bills can see a lot to admire in the auto insurance market. Auto coverage purchasers throughout…
Op-Eds
Beach Plan Fix Would Require Another Fix Later
Although thoughts of hurricane season conjure up images of devastated trailer parks, fearsome storm surges, and ruined roads, North Carolina has more to worry…
Op-Eds
Worst Idea of the Year
Later today [1:00 p.m. Thursday 7-9-9] former FEMA administrator James Lee Witt and former Coast Guard head James Loy –America’s two most trusted emergency…
Op-Eds
Why The Madoff Sentence is Too Long
Bernard Madoff is an evil con man. He should spend the nearly all the rest of his miserable life in prison. But the 150-year…
Op-Eds
Non-Profits Can Help the District’s Failing Economy
Public charities — organizations that do everything from advocating for wildlife to supporting stronger national defense — are the heart of Washington, D.C.’s private…
Op-Eds
Eliminating Prison Rape
It has been far too long in coming but, yesterday, the Federal Prison Rape Elimination commission released its report on elimination and prevention efforts…
Op-Eds
How to Start a Trade War: Rep. Neal’s Terrible Plan to Tax Offshore Reinsurance Companies
For much of the last decade, Massachusetts Democrat Richard Neal has banged away at proposals for vast tax increases on "offshore affiliated reinsurance"–coverage that…
Op-Eds
Bill in Congress Would Make a Bad Situation Worse
As the 2009 hurricane season enters its early weeks, Alabama residents need to check their windows, stock up on non-perishable food and make sure…
Op-Eds
Retirees and Pensions Fuel GM’s Downfall
General Motors has declared bankruptcy as a result of a number of things — bad management, poor products and screwy labor relations. But in…
Op-Eds
An Unnecessary Insurance Burden
As it girds for the busy months of hurricane season, Mississippi has plenty to worry about. Homeowner’s insurance coverage remains difficult to find and…
Op-Eds
Bad Idea Blowing an Ill Wind for Insured
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association has ended up at the brink of insolvency paying Hurricane Ike claims. Insurers operating near the coasts have begun…
Op-Eds
Legislature’s Continued Reliance on Catastrophe Fund a Disaster for Florida Finances
When it announced recently that it would rely on the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund alone for its reinsurance, Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corp. placed…
Op-Eds
Beach Plan Fix Requires Higher Insurance Rates on Coast
Full document available in PDF.
Op-Eds
The way the political winds are blowing, coastal insurance rates could go up
As it girds for hurricane season, Texas has plenty to worry about. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA)—which provides coverage for high risk coastal…
Op-Eds
Florida flirting with fiscal hurricane disaster
When it announced last week that it would rely on the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund alone for its reinsurance, Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corporation…
Op-Eds
State insurance programs flawed
Re “Insurance assurance,” editorial, April 9 The Times argues that the federal government should provide a "backstop" for state insurance funds like…
Op-Eds
‘Backstop’ idea appears too risky: Catastrophe fund may have opposite effect
Texans have many reasons to worry about hurricanes. Two large storms struck the state last year, insurance rates have risen steadily in most coastal areas,…
Op-Eds
Geithner promises repeat of Bush’s regulatory mistakes
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s testimony before Congress last weekrightly angered a lot of conservatives, small-government leftists, libertariansand other friends of the free market. And Geithner’s…
Op-Eds
‘Battlestar’ Rules: In the Wasteland of TV Drama, An Intergalactic Tour de Force.
Untitled Document When it premiered to high ratings in 1978, the producers of Battlestar Galactica promised their show would bring feature-film standards to…
Op-Eds
Time to put an end to AIG’s misery
Sometimes, it seems like AIG’s crisis couldn’t get any worse. After all, what was once the world’s largest insurance company has already consumed…
Op-Eds
Geithner’s Power Grab: Not All Bad
Testifying before the House of Representatives today, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner asked for vast new powers to oversee banks, investment houses, hedge funds, and…
Op-Eds
Is a ‘modern hermit’ the best poet for laureate
The Niagara River by Kay Ryan Grove, 97 pp., $14 Kay Ryan writes fine, thoughtful, accessible poetry. A master of…
Op-Eds
States Broke the Insurance Regulatory System
About six months after the U.S. government first injected taxpayer money into AIG, the company continues to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy…
Op-Eds
Protectionism is the embrace of fear, the rejection of hope
In the context of America’s $17-trillion economy, $12-trillion national debt and $4-trillion federal budget, a few billion dollars worth of international trade doesn’t sound…
Op-Eds
Insurer’s Exit Leaves Florida on the Brink
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 false false false EN-US…
Op-Eds
Eli Lehrer: “The U.S. government has no business taking over banks.”
Nationalize U.S. Banks: In light of the financial crisis, the U.S. should nationalize banks, taking over the most troubled ones. Pro: The…
Op-Eds
State Farm exit will leave Florida on the brink
State Farm’s decision to quit providing homeowners insurance in Florida shows that the state’s insurance market simply can’t survive in its current form.
Op-Eds
Wetlands–An Environmental Issue for Free Marketeers
Conservatives have good reason to question parts of the environmental movement’s wish-list. Proposals for new energy taxes, “green jobs” programs, and restrictions…
Op-Eds
State Farm’s exit leaves Florida on the brink of a crisis
State Farm’s decision to quit providing homeowners insurance in Florida shows that the state’s insurance market simply can’t survive in its current…
Op-Eds
Don’t Just Shrink Government — Run It Right
Op-Eds
A Distinctly American Poem; An inaugural poem that celebrates the romance and beauty of everyday life.
Elizabeth Alexander’s inaugural poem, "Praise Song for the Day," doesn’t qualify as a great poem, but it might emerge as an important one. As…
Op-Eds
Time to shore up the Beach Plan
Insurance Commissioner-elect Wayne Goodwin has called North Carolina’s Beach Plan a “ticking time bomb.” He’s right. The plan, intended to provide “last…
Op-Eds
What is Insurance?
Full Document Available in PDF Insurance is a type of financial product that serves to pool, manage and mitigate against unexpected…
Op-Eds
Natural Poet: Environmental lyrics are more appealing than political verse
Red Bird by Mary Oliver Beacon, 96 pp., $23 In a land where few poets can make more than a…
Op-Eds
Another housing crisis brewing
As it continues to pick up the pieces from the mortgage mess, Congress needs to take note of another housing-related crisis that threatens…
Op-Eds
Another Housing Crisis Brewing
Irresponsible federal and state homeowners' insurance schemes could easily cost the nation several hundred billion dollars when and if a major hurricane hits.
Op-Eds
Bush Should Keep Promise To Stop New Regs
Despite his party’s defeat at the polls last week, President Bush still wields enormous regulatory power. The way he manages this power—and, in…
Op-Eds
Property insurance gamble: Florida Risks its Fiscal Future on a Quiet Hurricane Season
One simple fact ought to dominate every discussion of Florida’s homeowners’ insurance system: Were a single storm to hit the wrong area, it would literally…
Op-Eds
Florida, Nation Need Federal Insurance Regulator
Much of the turmoil in America’s financial markets involves exotic investments that most Americans never have heard of and never will get near. However, with…
Op-Eds
Gale Force Foolishness: Congress pushes for a federal windstorm insurance program.
AS CONGRESS WINDS down its current session, there’s little doubt that plenty of bad ideas will pop out of the woodwork as members…
Op-Eds
Be wary of insurance rate cut
Although it may seem like an early New Year’s present, North Carolina drivers have every reason to be wary of the 16.1 percent…
Op-Eds
Soggy, slow-moving Fay offers lessons
Paying for insurance The Aug. 22 editorial, “Soggy, slow-moving Fay offers lessons,” contains a lot of common sense, but your call…
Op-Eds
Congress Should Develop Smart, Cost-Effective Natural Catastrophe Policy
Although it’s cold comfort to Florida residents dealing with the massive flooding that has resulted from Tropical Storm Fay, the slow moving…
Op-Eds
Congress Should Develop Smart, Cost-Effective Natural Catastrophe Policy
Although it’s cold comfort to Florida residents dealing with the massive flooding that has resulted from Tropical Storm Fay, the slow moving…
Op-Eds
Billionaires won’t keep Florida from fiscal disaster
On July 29, Florida’s State Board of Administration voted to spend $224 million in return for a billionaire’s pledge. Warren Buffett, the…
Op-Eds
Flood Control Subsidies Soak the Treasury
Since the first comprehensive flood control legislation went into effect the early 20th century, America’s federal government has fought a never-ending battle to control floods.
Op-Eds
Barney’s Big Idea
A few powerful members of Congress have got it in their heads that it would be a good idea to shake up…
Op-Eds
The Risks of Gambling Regulation
When trade emissaries from the European Union arrive in Washington later this month to talk to officials in Congress, the Justice Department, and…
Op-Eds
It’s time to tune up N.C.’s system
North Carolina's insurance system is headed down the wrong path, Eli Lehrer explains why and how to reform it.
Op-Eds
Swimming in Subsidies: The National Flood Insurance Program must dry up.
Already, the news of the massive flooding in the Midwest has disappeared from most newspaper front pages. And, indeed, the worst…
Op-Eds
Bailing out homeowners
Your June 16 editorial “Tornado warning” is absolutely correct to point out that “every part of the country has its risks.” But these…
Op-Eds
Catastrophe coalition looking out for public, not reinsurers
Your recent editorial, “Who’s really opposing national disaster plan?” (May 13), mischaracterizes the interests and motivations behind the organizations that comprise Americans for Smart…
Op-Eds
Animated Aristophanes: The Idiot, The Oddity, but not Homer (Simpson)
About half way through its 12th season, South Park (Comedy Central, Wednesdays, 10 P.M. ET) has attacked, to take just the first five…
Op-Eds
A financial disaster waiting to happen
Florida’s state government easily could end up bankrupt this year unless the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist change the state’s homeowners’ insurance…
Op-Eds
A Financial Disaster Waiting to Happen
Florida's state government easily could end up bankrupt this year unless the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist change the state's homeowners' insurance laws.
Op-Eds
Legislature can set tone to save Florida
Florida’s state government easily could end up bankrupt unless the Legislature abruptly changes course. Minor insurance law changes approved Wednesday don’t change much at…
Op-Eds
Ensuring Disaster
Congress may put taxpayers on the hook for what could easily top $100 billion in liabilities before Memorial Day…
Op-Eds
How a minor storm could bankrupt Florida
Here’s one scary Halloween scenario that could easily come true: By trick-or-treat time, just past the hurricane season’s peak, Florida’s state government…
Op-Eds
Police Those Credit Cards
The burdensome, patronizing, new credit card regulations proposed in the wildly misnamed “Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights” will hurt just about every…
Op-Eds
No Dice
Anybody who has spent time in Washington knows that Congress often passes bad laws. But even the most widely derided laws — think…
Op-Eds
A Disaster in the Making
Late last year, two recently elected southern Republican governors, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and Florida's Charlie Crist, vowed to work together for a "national catastrophe fund"…
Op-Eds
Lawmakers, undo some of 2007 reforms
A year has passed since Gov. Charlie Crist and a nearly unanimous Legislature hailed the arrival of a new era for Florida’s property insurance…
Op-Eds
Subprime Borrowers: Not Innocents
A simple look at the blunt reality reveals that borrowers themselves should assume primary responsibility for the current subprime crisis. Millions of borrowers, all…
Op-Eds
Eliminating Prison Rape
It has been far too long in coming but, yesterday, the Federal Prison Rape Elimination commission released its report on elimination and prevention…
Op-Eds
Crist’s insurance ‘fix’ might leave you broke
When former Gov. Jeb Bush recently said his successor's insurance reforms were “as bad as the natural disasters themselves,” he understated his case. As…
Op-Eds
Ripples Make Waves: We shouldn’t tax our credit unions
When last week’s credit-related market slump started reversing the stock market’s 2007 gains, it seemed clear that the Bush Administration would act quickly…
Op-Eds
Bankrupting Florida
If a catastrophic Katrina-like hurricane sweeps through the state of Florida, it may leave behind more than wrecked houses, damaged shops, and ruined roads:…
Op-Eds
Barriers to more effective US disaster insurance
Sir, You are right about the need for much greater purchase of disaster insurance but, perhaps, say verylittle about how difficult it might be…
Op-Eds
Short on Storm Coverage
So long as hurricanes continue to sweep through Florida's landscape, Floridians will have to find ways to repair the damage. As the Sentinel…
Op-Eds
Private Public Matters
Op-Eds
The Road to Health Care Reform
When they buy automobile insurance, Americans enjoy a market that provides many choices, lots of competition, and, in most places, reasonable rates. Residents of…
Op-Eds
Charleston’s Uncommon Tragedy: Fires do less damage today than ever before
Nine firefighters perished as a terrible inferno swept through <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Charleston’s Sofa Super Store this past Monday…
Op-Eds
Hurricane Eye on Insurers
Throughout the hurricane zone that follows <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />America's Atlantic coastline from Texas to North Carolina, a populist…
Op-Eds
Crime’s Up
During the late 1990s, police superintendent Edward F. Davis III presided over epic crime reductions in Lowell, Massachusetts. Under his leadership, the city's crime…
Op-Eds
The Church of Rachel Carson
One hundred years after her birth in May of 1907, it’s difficult to underestimate Rachel Carson’s influence. Unfortunately, it’s all bad. That hasn’t stopped…
Op-Eds
Caring for Vets: A Healthy Plan
If it wants to fix the appalling mess that medical care has become at Washington D.C.’s Walter Reed hospital, the Department of the Army might…