The major opponents of an OPTIONAL federal charter are the state bureaucrats who will lose some of their power base. Apparently CHOICE is good except when some elitist powers will be removed.
Where does this chuckle headed bumpkin get off, apparently he grew up with a back yard full of rakes that he kept stepping on resulting in chronic cerebral disfunction. Leave the insurance business up to the states, they have localized insurance departments/ombudsmen who have chartered responsibilities in this area, not to mention a lot more experience than a papa smurf type individual could ever hope to acquire. For god’s sake Jethro, shut up and get out of the white house before you decide to paint it RED.
Pitiful Jim. Get you head out of IRAQ. Back to the appropriate subject…Personally I don’t like the idea of ceding power to federal authority. I fear that the optional portion of this proposal will soon enough become mandatory.
Bush is trying to generate a legacy for himself other than 9/11, 4,000+ soldiers dead, a wrecked economy, over-inflated fuel prices, corruption, silent back-door dealings, and so on.
The one way to stop this travesty is to contact your Senators when the time comes to defeat this crap.
I am a 46 YO white Anglo-Saxon male. I am on the TSA watch list because I have a common name. I receive a shakedown every time I fly. Do not let the insurance industry receive the same treatment.
The levees were constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers. Each levee (three IIRC) was to be maintained by a local (New Orleans) elected board with taxing authority. Mysteriously, in Louisiana no less, the tax money collected for levee maintenance DID NOT go to levee maintenance. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT had nothing to do with the maintenance!
Seems every time government touches an industry, it slows down and gets more expensive. Can you name something any government does really well? Thought they did a pretty fair job of collecting taxes. Yet a lot of folks dont pay any. How about we get the government more OUT of business than in.
You’ve got the wrong enemy Nervous. 9/11, 4,000+ soldiers dead — Terrorists are to blame. A wrecked economy — hardly, here you’re just wrong. Over-inflated fuel prices — It’s a free world market, if your complaint is that the Federal tax is too high I agree otherwise your wrong again. Corruption, silent back-door dealings, and so on — not in politics, really? Give me a break.
Read the article next time. This has little or no chance of passing through congress.
It seems to me that Bush’s goal is to have a one world government and this is one step closer to that order as is the paronoia of global warming. It is all a rouse in the name of public protection to strip all non elitist of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Philosofically, our fears of requisite consumer protection, lends one to relinquish his freedom for protection thereby creating a fertile field for the “MAFIOSO” manifesto of control to amass power and gain.
Surely you must be wrong! You are telling me it was the fault of New Orleans and other local politicians that New Orleans was flooded by Katrina!!! I am truly shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you! I could have sworn it was widely reported to be the fault of the Federal Government, maybe even George Bush as commander in chief of the Army Corp of E… but you miss the point by being confused with “facts”.
Don’t look for improvement by putting the Federal Government in charge of Insurance Regulation!
Read Paul Krugman in the New York Times. He is no friend of deregulation and non-regulation for sure, but he points out this is just a false front put up so it seems like the righties are trying to regulate. The real plan is just to appear to be doing something about the problem and let continued market chaos develop because people with big capital and the right information (hint, hint, clue, clue!) can make a killing in times like these.
According to the fact sheet, the recommendation is to:
�� Create an Optional Federal Charter for Insurance to encourage a more
competitive U.S. industry.
Given the current stage, it’s doubtful Bush will have the opportunity to take this very far. The question is how will his predecessors respond to this proprosal of this kind.
Targeted regulation could assist everyone. Most of the state departments of insurance (DOIs) impose the same regulations on all companies domiciled in the state regeardless of the size, lines of business or financial structure of the company.
If the larger carriers could opt out, maybe the DOIs could find some balance for the regionals and state specialists that are remaining.
Let’s keep in mind that the feds have plenty of power – TRIA, discounting of loss reserves, Treasury reviews for bonding, SEC, RRG act, etc.
With their federal home loan banks and federally sponsored GSEs FNM & FRE, we need an additional layer of federal sloth like we need a bullit in the head.
This is a ludicrous idea placing everything under one centralize authority, no checks and balances, having someone in Washington who have no idea of the needs of the local consumers, more red tape which will ultimately raise premiums. Centralization is not good for the local needs of the consumers. Decentralization which is how it is presently is the most efficient means, with better service of the needs of consumers, a local authority which understands the local markets is always better for the consumer.
If I am correct, this whole fiasco from paulson today started with the sub-prime mortgage problems and also the graham leahy act which allowed financial servies business’s to go into each others business. This brought banks into offering insurance products in which the tellers they hire have no knowledge of the contracts they are selling, thus hurting the consumers such as in New Orleans by not having the flood insurance needed as an example. It was the banks which are presently regulated by the federal reserve who offered the sub prime mortgages in collusion with the investment banks that caused the problem. Why is it the Fed did not prosecute any of the banks for using predatory practices on aquiring these mortgages without doing their due diligence on offering mortgages to questionable candidates, who had little or no ability to pay off these mortgages. Even Greenspan believed in Fixed rate mortgages, but said that the adjustable rates are a great instrument. I think it is time to place the blame where it really belongs with the federal reserve.
Bad idea… “On size fits all” does not apply to the Insurance Industry..even on an “optional” basis… just like Spitzer took care of the bad apples in New York, and Poizner is getting tough on fraud, each state should handle their own problems individually…
It’s about time, and the stricter the better
How much is the public supposed to put up with from the shenanigans (nice word) from the crooks out there
If they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear
Junk bonds, Enron, Buffet, sub-prime, geez where does it end
And make the penaltie$ AND JAIL time generous
Don’t forget all the money at the State level? Does anyone believe the State-boys will relinquish their “insurance toll gates”? Or, the authority to “waive the Big Boys” through the toll gates, when greased with enough lobbyist cash?
You are absolutely right, but remember the Federal Reserve is not a government agency. It is a cartel of super rich private bankers who have managed to weasel their way into controling a very large segment of our financial industry. It now appears that George and the rest of the sellouts in Congress are primed to give the rest of the bird to their fat cat financiers, and the American Taxpayers will be left with the scraps and the bill for their excessive greed.
I hope no one believes that the subprime mess and the resulting power grab by the Feds is coincidental.
Don’t kid yourself. This is the Federal Govt’s latest money grab. And it is a big one. Insurance Premium Taxes are a huge part of each State’s general funds budget.
Oh this makes a lot of sense. The Banking and Mortgage industry created the mess that we now have (credit crisis as a result of hybrid loans and housing bubble) and now because the Bond Insurers did not have enough capital to bail out billions of dollars in foolish loans, it is the state regulators fault. Brilliant. Please don’t let the Bush administration make anymore big changes.
Hey Mike has as a great idea. Lets just completely de-regulate the insurance industry like the airlines did. How about the truckers?
Another post said something about Free market forces. Sure let the biggest and best with the most capital squeeze out or force the smaller regionals to merge with them and then lets see after a little while how much choice we will have in our insurance purchases. Don’t you love those minimum premiums.
I am not for deregulation, I believe that regulation has to be decentralized to the state level and county level. I have been in this business long enough to know that without regulation, independent agents and brokers will create havoc and the poeple who will be hurt will be the consumer.
The Fed on the other hand along with the banks are the ones who created the mess we are in today with the sub-prime mortgages. Having my office next door to questionable mortgage brokers in the past 5 years who all happen to be out of business today, were peddling these sub-primes by telling people go with interest only and take all of the equity out of your home. I felt that this was larcenous back then as we all know what is happening today. So where was the state and the fed back then?
Maybe a federal oversite will stop this insane business of overinsurance values on homes that these carriers demand. Run 3 costimator programs and you get 3 different prices!
I agree with you; this optional federal charter was not going anywhere and now they want to use this opportunity to “fix” something else. So now Bush says we need to fix the subprime mess and the fall out from that, so what does the government do? go after the insurance industry. I thought this was about investment banking! That is what is called a NON-SEQUITUR or a BAIT and SWITCH… after all Dubya and Cheney said we were going into Irag after WMD; then when that failed, it was regime change and now they are pressed to do something that they said they would never pursue, nation-building. I’ll be glad when this error, oops, I meant ERA, is over. Hopefully whoever gets in office will at least be consistent and honest. I can live with a mistake if it is acknowledged but this OFC business is just another attempt to consolidate power for the executive branch….why not just abolish congress? the president will take care of everything; he always has a plan, and is always trying to fix things that were not broke or harpingn on issues that no one complained about.
Widespread overinsurance is certainly NOT the problem, at least in many markets. A PBS report last year lambasted California insurers for underinsuring homes destroyed in the region. Some homeowners were insured at about fifty cents on the dollar. I keep articles in my office from five years ago that reveal 67% of homes in America are underinsured by an average of 27%. As an agent who has had 3 total loss fires in the last five years, I can tell you that the statistics are correct. We won’t insure any frame (wood) part of a house now for less than $200 per foot. That happens to be consistent with what building contractors in my area charge for new construction. I do not use my companies cost estimator.
I don’t want to get sued in the event one of my policyholders has a total loss.
The high cost of fuel ,not the mortgage or banking industry is responsible for this depression. Think about everything that has to be transported and then transfer all of those cost to the end user and for those homowners that were living paycheck to paycheck it spelled the perfect storm. I predict $ 6.00 per gallon fuel by this time next year,a further 25 to 40 % loss in real estate value and double digit unemployment. Follow the fuel and the oil companies inability to refine enough to accomodate this massive influx of immigrants, thank you federal government, and these environ-MENTAL YO YOS and you’ll have your answer .Don’t let the media BS their way into your logical mind
I believe with some companies under state and some under federal would cause confusion for insurers and insureds alike. Isn’t there a better solution?
The major opponents of an OPTIONAL federal charter are the state bureaucrats who will lose some of their power base. Apparently CHOICE is good except when some elitist powers will be removed.
What can Bish do but caiuse more confusion we have enough going on bring our boys home first
This is a good thing for the industry despite the push back from the individual states who will loose power and $$$. Great story Insurnace Journal.
Thought the republicans wanted less government? Guess its only when it effects their own pocketbooks.. how interesting.
Where does this chuckle headed bumpkin get off, apparently he grew up with a back yard full of rakes that he kept stepping on resulting in chronic cerebral disfunction. Leave the insurance business up to the states, they have localized insurance departments/ombudsmen who have chartered responsibilities in this area, not to mention a lot more experience than a papa smurf type individual could ever hope to acquire. For god’s sake Jethro, shut up and get out of the white house before you decide to paint it RED.
Pitiful Jim. Get you head out of IRAQ. Back to the appropriate subject…Personally I don’t like the idea of ceding power to federal authority. I fear that the optional portion of this proposal will soon enough become mandatory.
Bush is trying to generate a legacy for himself other than 9/11, 4,000+ soldiers dead, a wrecked economy, over-inflated fuel prices, corruption, silent back-door dealings, and so on.
The one way to stop this travesty is to contact your Senators when the time comes to defeat this crap.
I am a 46 YO white Anglo-Saxon male. I am on the TSA watch list because I have a common name. I receive a shakedown every time I fly. Do not let the insurance industry receive the same treatment.
Howdy Ya’ll,
I’m wid the Fedrl Gomment and A’m here to halp yu!
And if you have any doubts, see the grand job I did on some Levees in the Bayou!
The levees were constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers. Each levee (three IIRC) was to be maintained by a local (New Orleans) elected board with taxing authority. Mysteriously, in Louisiana no less, the tax money collected for levee maintenance DID NOT go to levee maintenance. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT had nothing to do with the maintenance!
Seems every time government touches an industry, it slows down and gets more expensive. Can you name something any government does really well? Thought they did a pretty fair job of collecting taxes. Yet a lot of folks dont pay any. How about we get the government more OUT of business than in.
because people living 20 feet below sea level didn’t buy flood insurance, I now
have to pay for another level of federal
beauracracy?
Hey nervous – get a life.
You’ve got the wrong enemy Nervous. 9/11, 4,000+ soldiers dead — Terrorists are to blame. A wrecked economy — hardly, here you’re just wrong. Over-inflated fuel prices — It’s a free world market, if your complaint is that the Federal tax is too high I agree otherwise your wrong again. Corruption, silent back-door dealings, and so on — not in politics, really? Give me a break.
Read the article next time. This has little or no chance of passing through congress.
It seems to me that Bush’s goal is to have a one world government and this is one step closer to that order as is the paronoia of global warming. It is all a rouse in the name of public protection to strip all non elitist of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Philosofically, our fears of requisite consumer protection, lends one to relinquish his freedom for protection thereby creating a fertile field for the “MAFIOSO” manifesto of control to amass power and gain.
To Levees,
Surely you must be wrong! You are telling me it was the fault of New Orleans and other local politicians that New Orleans was flooded by Katrina!!! I am truly shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you! I could have sworn it was widely reported to be the fault of the Federal Government, maybe even George Bush as commander in chief of the Army Corp of E… but you miss the point by being confused with “facts”.
Don’t look for improvement by putting the Federal Government in charge of Insurance Regulation!
Read Paul Krugman in the New York Times. He is no friend of deregulation and non-regulation for sure, but he points out this is just a false front put up so it seems like the righties are trying to regulate. The real plan is just to appear to be doing something about the problem and let continued market chaos develop because people with big capital and the right information (hint, hint, clue, clue!) can make a killing in times like these.
Ain’t nothing gonna happen for now.
295 days left….
Do you hear yourself? Everyone has a hidden agenda even New York Times authors. It got you believing him…
The Feds will triumph in this effort; mark my words.
According to the fact sheet, the recommendation is to:
�� Create an Optional Federal Charter for Insurance to encourage a more
competitive U.S. industry.
Given the current stage, it’s doubtful Bush will have the opportunity to take this very far. The question is how will his predecessors respond to this proprosal of this kind.
Targeted regulation could assist everyone. Most of the state departments of insurance (DOIs) impose the same regulations on all companies domiciled in the state regeardless of the size, lines of business or financial structure of the company.
If the larger carriers could opt out, maybe the DOIs could find some balance for the regionals and state specialists that are remaining.
Let’s keep in mind that the feds have plenty of power – TRIA, discounting of loss reserves, Treasury reviews for bonding, SEC, RRG act, etc.
With their federal home loan banks and federally sponsored GSEs FNM & FRE, we need an additional layer of federal sloth like we need a bullit in the head.
This is a ludicrous idea placing everything under one centralize authority, no checks and balances, having someone in Washington who have no idea of the needs of the local consumers, more red tape which will ultimately raise premiums. Centralization is not good for the local needs of the consumers. Decentralization which is how it is presently is the most efficient means, with better service of the needs of consumers, a local authority which understands the local markets is always better for the consumer.
If I am correct, this whole fiasco from paulson today started with the sub-prime mortgage problems and also the graham leahy act which allowed financial servies business’s to go into each others business. This brought banks into offering insurance products in which the tellers they hire have no knowledge of the contracts they are selling, thus hurting the consumers such as in New Orleans by not having the flood insurance needed as an example. It was the banks which are presently regulated by the federal reserve who offered the sub prime mortgages in collusion with the investment banks that caused the problem. Why is it the Fed did not prosecute any of the banks for using predatory practices on aquiring these mortgages without doing their due diligence on offering mortgages to questionable candidates, who had little or no ability to pay off these mortgages. Even Greenspan believed in Fixed rate mortgages, but said that the adjustable rates are a great instrument. I think it is time to place the blame where it really belongs with the federal reserve.
Bad idea… “On size fits all” does not apply to the Insurance Industry..even on an “optional” basis… just like Spitzer took care of the bad apples in New York, and Poizner is getting tough on fraud, each state should handle their own problems individually…
It’s about time, and the stricter the better
How much is the public supposed to put up with from the shenanigans (nice word) from the crooks out there
If they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear
Junk bonds, Enron, Buffet, sub-prime, geez where does it end
And make the penaltie$ AND JAIL time generous
Don’t forget all the money at the State level? Does anyone believe the State-boys will relinquish their “insurance toll gates”? Or, the authority to “waive the Big Boys” through the toll gates, when greased with enough lobbyist cash?
You are absolutely right, but remember the Federal Reserve is not a government agency. It is a cartel of super rich private bankers who have managed to weasel their way into controling a very large segment of our financial industry. It now appears that George and the rest of the sellouts in Congress are primed to give the rest of the bird to their fat cat financiers, and the American Taxpayers will be left with the scraps and the bill for their excessive greed.
I hope no one believes that the subprime mess and the resulting power grab by the Feds is coincidental.
Don’t kid yourself. This is the Federal Govt’s latest money grab. And it is a big one. Insurance Premium Taxes are a huge part of each State’s general funds budget.
Oh this makes a lot of sense. The Banking and Mortgage industry created the mess that we now have (credit crisis as a result of hybrid loans and housing bubble) and now because the Bond Insurers did not have enough capital to bail out billions of dollars in foolish loans, it is the state regulators fault. Brilliant. Please don’t let the Bush administration make anymore big changes.
Hey Mike has as a great idea. Lets just completely de-regulate the insurance industry like the airlines did. How about the truckers?
Another post said something about Free market forces. Sure let the biggest and best with the most capital squeeze out or force the smaller regionals to merge with them and then lets see after a little while how much choice we will have in our insurance purchases. Don’t you love those minimum premiums.
Let’s see – the feds regulate the stock market, major brokerages and banks – which are now in turmoil with values in free fall.
The states regulate insurance, which has so far largely avoided any of these problems, despite the growing world-wide nature of the meltdown.
And the plan suggests benefits to the insurance industry and consumers from federal regulation? Get serious!
I am not for deregulation, I believe that regulation has to be decentralized to the state level and county level. I have been in this business long enough to know that without regulation, independent agents and brokers will create havoc and the poeple who will be hurt will be the consumer.
The Fed on the other hand along with the banks are the ones who created the mess we are in today with the sub-prime mortgages. Having my office next door to questionable mortgage brokers in the past 5 years who all happen to be out of business today, were peddling these sub-primes by telling people go with interest only and take all of the equity out of your home. I felt that this was larcenous back then as we all know what is happening today. So where was the state and the fed back then?
Maybe a federal oversite will stop this insane business of overinsurance values on homes that these carriers demand. Run 3 costimator programs and you get 3 different prices!
I agree with you; this optional federal charter was not going anywhere and now they want to use this opportunity to “fix” something else. So now Bush says we need to fix the subprime mess and the fall out from that, so what does the government do? go after the insurance industry. I thought this was about investment banking! That is what is called a NON-SEQUITUR or a BAIT and SWITCH… after all Dubya and Cheney said we were going into Irag after WMD; then when that failed, it was regime change and now they are pressed to do something that they said they would never pursue, nation-building. I’ll be glad when this error, oops, I meant ERA, is over. Hopefully whoever gets in office will at least be consistent and honest. I can live with a mistake if it is acknowledged but this OFC business is just another attempt to consolidate power for the executive branch….why not just abolish congress? the president will take care of everything; he always has a plan, and is always trying to fix things that were not broke or harpingn on issues that no one complained about.
Widespread overinsurance is certainly NOT the problem, at least in many markets. A PBS report last year lambasted California insurers for underinsuring homes destroyed in the region. Some homeowners were insured at about fifty cents on the dollar. I keep articles in my office from five years ago that reveal 67% of homes in America are underinsured by an average of 27%. As an agent who has had 3 total loss fires in the last five years, I can tell you that the statistics are correct. We won’t insure any frame (wood) part of a house now for less than $200 per foot. That happens to be consistent with what building contractors in my area charge for new construction. I do not use my companies cost estimator.
I don’t want to get sued in the event one of my policyholders has a total loss.
The high cost of fuel ,not the mortgage or banking industry is responsible for this depression. Think about everything that has to be transported and then transfer all of those cost to the end user and for those homowners that were living paycheck to paycheck it spelled the perfect storm. I predict $ 6.00 per gallon fuel by this time next year,a further 25 to 40 % loss in real estate value and double digit unemployment. Follow the fuel and the oil companies inability to refine enough to accomodate this massive influx of immigrants, thank you federal government, and these environ-MENTAL YO YOS and you’ll have your answer .Don’t let the media BS their way into your logical mind