Posted On: January 11, 2008, 2:16 pm CST

Posted By: media mogul

Here is an example of why either/or thinking is not going to get it and why broader perspective is required--even if Slim and others want us to be narrowly-focused little insure-bots serving Big Capital.

One example: Hunter was indeed insurance commissioner in Texas. His most important push was to end the state's calculation of WC exp. mods' and send that bit of bureaucracy to the NCCI. He made a comment on "useless filing cabinets filled with useless information." Some long-term state employees specialized in this pursuit lost their employment. He then led and engineered the deregulation of WC rates in Texas (Surprise! that's rights, folks!).

WC rates went into free fall helped along by a WC reform effort through which now Texas Senator Cornyn (the noted Bush lickspittle and mouthpiece) launched his political career. Hence, Hunter the Deregulator, Favorer of the Market, Tool of Business. (And also spawner of the Cornyn the conservative craven crazy). Go figure. Or, if we avoid either/or thinking, maybe Hunter the more efficient Regulator, the informed Favorer of the Market, the non-either/or Regulator...and Cornyn was just a bad joke on us all.

After 9-11, certainly a political event with worldwide implications (200 to 300 years of Western oil company interefence in the Middle East, just by the way and for example, or do we settle for the crazy idea floated by Bush/Rove/Cheney that "those people hate our freedowm," whatever that was supposed to mean?), Texas WC rates stiffened. The ensuing several bad hurricane years kept a coastal hard market firmly in place so that WC was far more profitable for insurers than usual and unnecessarily costly for businesses and consuemrs of their products. Now, after a few good hurricane years, the coastal hard market is waning (more like collapsing) and WC rates are free-falling again. Reinsurance and windstorm writing are also bound up in much broader political matters, of course. I wonder how much of the new windstorm capacity is related to the impaired mortgage-backed securities...it is all related, Slim. That's why we call it reality.

So actually, Hunter's behavior has not been entirely market averse--to the contrary. He is just now playing his role as consumer advocate arguing to force personal lines rates down through political action. This is an entirely normal and expectable event--except perhaps in Putin's Russia or in current China.

The economics of insurance underwriting cycles are never going to be understood widely so they will always remain a target for political action by either party as required to gain or maintain political power. (Hey, Slim, read Machiavelli's The Prince or is that outside the approved insurance thought curriculum?). I am happy to see consumer advocates oppose Big Capital and its lap dog politicians--it wouldn't be a good country without them.

The big picture, Slim--it's called connecting the dots, ask Condi and Cheney and Bush--is that this government no longer represents or serves its people. Hey, even Lou Dobbs figured this one out. You seem to like that. Go figure. Too much sun on the brain in Arizona? Would Barry Goldwater recognize these "conservatives?"

Oh, well, I'll just take your adivce and complete this worksheet to justify the IRPM and schedule credits that are needed to take this or that account away from someone else. Nothing like productive economic activity is there? Defoliating a victory garden sure works up an appetite!