"Why We Need Federal Insurance Regulation Now
Rolfe Winkler has a great post on Allstate's finances today, which underscores two things: the urgency of massive regulatory overhaul in the financial sector, and the necessity of including insurance companies under the unified financial-services regulatory umbrella.
Unless and until that happens, companies like Allstate will go regulator-shopping (the state of Illinois seems pretty well-disposed towards them) and bad insurance will drive out good. And then, eventually, when there's a big insurable disaster, we'll all be shocked -- shocked! -- that Allstate isn't able to use deferred tax assets, and other "capital" of dubious real-world worth, to pay out on its policies."
Me:
I saw the same story in the Post, but my thought was "What's the point of commenting?". The lengths to which we are are willing to go to avoid nationalization of a few banks, which I have been for since September, is a confirmation of my worst fears. Allstate is laughing at all of us.
Before I move on to being laughed at for hoping that insurance gets a good going over, I'd like to keep up the pressure on the banks, who are proving again and again that they'll have the last laugh, and a jolly good one it will be too. I'm sure that they'll find it quite exhilarating.
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