here we go; now that banking screwed up so bad and dragged insurance into it, let’s regulate insurance at the federal level and let’s have treasury do the job. they did such a “FINE” job regulating the market that we can trust them to make it ALL better…..not! Let’s get to the core of the problem: greed! whatever happened to demanding collateral for loans? This is all due to having salesmen market complex financial product without having any understanding of what they were doing, EXCEPT making commissions for everyone. You wouldn’t let you children balance your checkbook, why let young unsophisticated lenders run the bank’s mortgage operations? So let’s at least do something, even if it’s the wrong thing, to at least appear as if we know what we’re doing….that’s the knee jerk response we want, right?
“Under the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), insurance regulatory authority only applies to actual insurance entities and transactions with those entities. ”
One of the architects of this legislation and its resulting mess is the same Phil Gramm that is on McCain’s campaign. Phil Gramm, the man who pushed to repeal the Depression era Glass-Steagall Act is John McCain’s economic advisor. Let that sink in for a minute. The same Phil Gramm who also sponsored this legislation, allowing an insurance holding company to transfer funds to non-regulated (or practically non-regulated) entities.
The parts of AIG that are in the financial mess are the parts that are federally regulated. The insurance components are state regulated and in themselves are operating profitably. To me this looks like a perfect argument against an OFC.
It takes a politician to take these facts and make an argument for federal charter.
You must be one of those whiners (“we’re a nation of whiners”) uncle Phil was talking about. Remember that was spoken by a guy who has his health care paid for 100% for the rest of his life and probably has not gotten his hands dirty much in the last 40 or so years. He has a lot less to whine about than most of us. McCain takes advice from people like that to fill in his self-admitted lack of knowlege on the economy.
Let me see if I understand why the Fed regulation of insurance is better than State.
The subprime crisis could have and should have been prevented by the SEC. Once the mortgages were bundled and sold as securities, that is when the SEC should have been regulating the investments.
The Federal Government is generally incompetent, insensitive and resides in Ivory towers to never be questioned.
So if the Feds regulate insurance are we to expect the same incompetence that the SEC has displayed in the subprime securities issue????
I agree completely. The Federal Government has enough problems running themselves and to add another layer to government to regulate the insurance industry is another disaster waiting to happen like the SEC.
I can just imagine a domiciled insurer in one state needing approval for rate filings, coverage, etc and having to fight Washington on approval when they don’t have clue what the insurance climate is in a particular state.
I sure hope the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America continue their fight against such legislation. The Federal Government needs to first look at themselves and figure out what is wrong on the home front before meddling into uncharted waters of insurance regulation.
You are so right! Don’t let the facts get in the way, call black white over and over and insist it is white. That’s how the political war is being fought now: just repeat that you are a leader, you are proponent of change, you can reform Washington….even if you can’t you can fool enough people long enough to get them to vote for you. So now they will say OFC will fix everything, even if nothing was wrong. They don’t expect the average person to know enough or care enough to check the facts!
How did you make that connection between Obama and Spitzer? Just because they were democratic? I doubt if Spitzer can rehab his reputation for some time but definitly not in insurance, it would be too tough to get that nomination through congress.
Does Sandy Praeger know how many comanpies went bankrupt as a result of Katrina? And I wonder if those policyholders felt proctected by the wonderal job their state’s insurance commisioner did? State’s don’t regulate, some of them don’t have enough funds. The only thing they can do, pretty much, is make a strong recommendation. However, they don’t pull charters until after tremendous damage has already been done. The State’s love that insuracne lobby money too. Our Federal Gov’t needs to have the big picture of what every insurance company is doing in every state at all times. Not only that most PC companies I know of aren’t making huge profits these days. I’m sure they’ll sell at bargain prices from AIG. The lack of regualtion has cost the consumer’s big money in rates due to the fact that their are too many insurer’s doing buisness but really shouldn’t be doing buisness. Example, there are probably 100s of mutual companies that sell earthquake coverage but as soon as one hits. Guess what? Their gone. They know this now but whose going to stop them. You?
“I am the number one personal writer of index annuities in the United States.
As I write this the world markets are in danger of collapse- Everything is imploding-but I can assure you that the SEC has been vigilant in making sure that wealthy seniors aren’t taken advantage of by coming to free dinner seminars where index annuities are discussed.
I and my company have been scrutinized-harassed And my ads used as examples by the SEC watchdogs.
How much money was lost in index annuities today and the last few weeks? Zero.
Now the SEC in its wisdom-Can I say that?
Wants to regulate them -index annuities-as securities-when they are clearly not.
Instead of watching whatever the mess is going on The SEC wants to make sure they do the same great job protecting people who buy index annuities as they have done For Bears-Lehman Bros-Merrill-and everyone else. Bravo!Bravo!
The SEC ignores the facts that they -index annuities-are insurance products highly regulated by each state- Much as they have ignored everything else going on.
I say cheers to the wisdom of the geniuses who are protecting us. A toast to them!
Index annuities are fixed insurance products-among the safest of all places to put your money. I welcome all former employees of Lehman Bros. to my free dinner seminars as I wish to offer them a free meal.
Perhaps they will get to sit next to an SEC regulator who wants20to keep people from taking their money out of the market and into safe secure insurance products and they can lament together.
The SEC people may need a free meal also-as most likely Congress nor the American people will put up with the mess they have made and they may need to move on and muck something else up. How could so many wise
important people be so delusional as to miss the forest for the trees?
In closing-shutting down free dinner seminars may be doing me a huge favor-because with the damage the SEC has allowed to occur the need for free food for out of work and distressed Americans is growing by the hour. Who would have thunk it?
My closing thought-if this all wasn’t so sad and true-it would be funny.
Anyone who has lived through the last few months and watched the Federal Govenment handle the housing crisis and the banking fiasco, and still wants the Federal Government to handle our regulatory system for insurance is not thinking straight. Yes for those of us who right in more than one state and in different countries there needs to be a clearing place for reciprocity but definatley do not allow the Federal Government to be our regulators. Leave the regulation to the states. The states can respond faster and are more in touch with what the needs are of the agents in their states, rather than another Federal Bureaucacy that loses touch and allows fiascos like we have witnessed over and over. If anyone can please tell me one government program run by the Federal Government that is run efficiently.
here we go; now that banking screwed up so bad and dragged insurance into it, let’s regulate insurance at the federal level and let’s have treasury do the job. they did such a “FINE” job regulating the market that we can trust them to make it ALL better…..not! Let’s get to the core of the problem: greed! whatever happened to demanding collateral for loans? This is all due to having salesmen market complex financial product without having any understanding of what they were doing, EXCEPT making commissions for everyone. You wouldn’t let you children balance your checkbook, why let young unsophisticated lenders run the bank’s mortgage operations? So let’s at least do something, even if it’s the wrong thing, to at least appear as if we know what we’re doing….that’s the knee jerk response we want, right?
“Under the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), insurance regulatory authority only applies to actual insurance entities and transactions with those entities. ”
One of the architects of this legislation and its resulting mess is the same Phil Gramm that is on McCain’s campaign. Phil Gramm, the man who pushed to repeal the Depression era Glass-Steagall Act is John McCain’s economic advisor. Let that sink in for a minute. The same Phil Gramm who also sponsored this legislation, allowing an insurance holding company to transfer funds to non-regulated (or practically non-regulated) entities.
The parts of AIG that are in the financial mess are the parts that are federally regulated. The insurance components are state regulated and in themselves are operating profitably. To me this looks like a perfect argument against an OFC.
It takes a politician to take these facts and make an argument for federal charter.
And author of the Enron loophole.
You must be one of those whiners (“we’re a nation of whiners”) uncle Phil was talking about. Remember that was spoken by a guy who has his health care paid for 100% for the rest of his life and probably has not gotten his hands dirty much in the last 40 or so years. He has a lot less to whine about than most of us. McCain takes advice from people like that to fill in his self-admitted lack of knowlege on the economy.
The FEDS did such a great job with the banks let’s give them insurance too.
Let me see if I understand why the Fed regulation of insurance is better than State.
The subprime crisis could have and should have been prevented by the SEC. Once the mortgages were bundled and sold as securities, that is when the SEC should have been regulating the investments.
The Federal Government is generally incompetent, insensitive and resides in Ivory towers to never be questioned.
So if the Feds regulate insurance are we to expect the same incompetence that the SEC has displayed in the subprime securities issue????
I agree completely. The Federal Government has enough problems running themselves and to add another layer to government to regulate the insurance industry is another disaster waiting to happen like the SEC.
I can just imagine a domiciled insurer in one state needing approval for rate filings, coverage, etc and having to fight Washington on approval when they don’t have clue what the insurance climate is in a particular state.
I sure hope the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America continue their fight against such legislation. The Federal Government needs to first look at themselves and figure out what is wrong on the home front before meddling into uncharted waters of insurance regulation.
I can see it now, Barack Obama gets elected and he announces a new position within his Cabinet ….. Insurance Regulator Czar as Elliot Spitzer.
God helps us all!!!!
You tell them honey.
This is so right on, surely nobody can argue with my husband.
Yup …and don’t forget FEMA as another grand government example. What a train wreck that relief agency is…
You are so right! Don’t let the facts get in the way, call black white over and over and insist it is white. That’s how the political war is being fought now: just repeat that you are a leader, you are proponent of change, you can reform Washington….even if you can’t you can fool enough people long enough to get them to vote for you. So now they will say OFC will fix everything, even if nothing was wrong. They don’t expect the average person to know enough or care enough to check the facts!
How did you make that connection between Obama and Spitzer? Just because they were democratic? I doubt if Spitzer can rehab his reputation for some time but definitly not in insurance, it would be too tough to get that nomination through congress.
Does Sandy Praeger know how many comanpies went bankrupt as a result of Katrina? And I wonder if those policyholders felt proctected by the wonderal job their state’s insurance commisioner did? State’s don’t regulate, some of them don’t have enough funds. The only thing they can do, pretty much, is make a strong recommendation. However, they don’t pull charters until after tremendous damage has already been done. The State’s love that insuracne lobby money too. Our Federal Gov’t needs to have the big picture of what every insurance company is doing in every state at all times. Not only that most PC companies I know of aren’t making huge profits these days. I’m sure they’ll sell at bargain prices from AIG. The lack of regualtion has cost the consumer’s big money in rates due to the fact that their are too many insurer’s doing buisness but really shouldn’t be doing buisness. Example, there are probably 100s of mutual companies that sell earthquake coverage but as soon as one hits. Guess what? Their gone. They know this now but whose going to stop them. You?
A comment from Phillip Wasserman:
“I am the number one personal writer of index annuities in the United States.
As I write this the world markets are in danger of collapse- Everything is imploding-but I can assure you that the SEC has been vigilant in making sure that wealthy seniors aren’t taken advantage of by coming to free dinner seminars where index annuities are discussed.
I and my company have been scrutinized-harassed And my ads used as examples by the SEC watchdogs.
How much money was lost in index annuities today and the last few weeks? Zero.
Now the SEC in its wisdom-Can I say that?
Wants to regulate them -index annuities-as securities-when they are clearly not.
Instead of watching whatever the mess is going on The SEC wants to make sure they do the same great job protecting people who buy index annuities as they have done For Bears-Lehman Bros-Merrill-and everyone else. Bravo!Bravo!
The SEC ignores the facts that they -index annuities-are insurance products highly regulated by each state- Much as they have ignored everything else going on.
I say cheers to the wisdom of the geniuses who are protecting us. A toast to them!
Index annuities are fixed insurance products-among the safest of all places to put your money. I welcome all former employees of Lehman Bros. to my free dinner seminars as I wish to offer them a free meal.
Perhaps they will get to sit next to an SEC regulator who wants20to keep people from taking their money out of the market and into safe secure insurance products and they can lament together.
The SEC people may need a free meal also-as most likely Congress nor the American people will put up with the mess they have made and they may need to move on and muck something else up. How could so many wise
important people be so delusional as to miss the forest for the trees?
In closing-shutting down free dinner seminars may be doing me a huge favor-because with the damage the SEC has allowed to occur the need for free food for out of work and distressed Americans is growing by the hour. Who would have thunk it?
My closing thought-if this all wasn’t so sad and true-it would be funny.
-Phil Wasserman”
Anyone who has lived through the last few months and watched the Federal Govenment handle the housing crisis and the banking fiasco, and still wants the Federal Government to handle our regulatory system for insurance is not thinking straight. Yes for those of us who right in more than one state and in different countries there needs to be a clearing place for reciprocity but definatley do not allow the Federal Government to be our regulators. Leave the regulation to the states. The states can respond faster and are more in touch with what the needs are of the agents in their states, rather than another Federal Bureaucacy that loses touch and allows fiascos like we have witnessed over and over. If anyone can please tell me one government program run by the Federal Government that is run efficiently.
i nid more money than any person int the world despite my in