Friday, July 30, 2010
| Make Florida More Hurricane-Resistant
published: Sep 28, 2009
by: Eli Lehrer and John Hallman
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 has passed a few common-sense reforms to the state's property insurance system and state CFO Alex Sink says that the state's troubled Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (Cat Fund) has gained a firmer fiscal footing. more... |
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| A catastrophe waiting to happen
published: Sep 15, 2009
by: Jonathan Orszag
This month marks the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. That raises a simple question: Are we prepared as a Nation for the next mega-catastrophe (one, perhaps, worse than Katrina) that will inevitably strike our country? more... |
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| The Meltdown Next Time: The financial danger nobody knows about.
published: Sep 12, 2009
by: Eli Lehrer
When the insurance giant American International Group was threatened with collapse in late 2008, its credit default swap business and other international operations were cited as the heart of its troubles. But the largest consequence of AIG's uncontrolled failure on consumers' pocketbooks could have come from the domino-like collapse of its businesses writing insurance on boats, cars, homes, lives, and just about everything else. If these businesses fell apart as a result of AIG's overall collapse, the argument went, the contagion could have brought a collapse of everything from retirement savings plans to auto insurance claims payments from companies unconnected to AIG. (In theory, the operations were firewalled from AIG's other operations, but the extremely slow rate at which they've found buyers indicates that many had significant exposure to the company's other woes.) more... |
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CEI Reacts to ‘Florida Preparedness Month’ |
by: Christian Cámara
published: Sep 01, 2009
TALLAHSSEE, SEPTEMBER 2, 2009—The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank, today reacted to Governor Charlie Crist’s declaration of September, 2009 as “Florida Preparedness Month.” In recognition of the month, the state will partner with organizations to help educate the public about emergency preparedness.
''I commend Governor Charlie Crist for trying to raise public awareness regarding the dangers Florida faces, especially with regard to hurricanes, but more needs to be done,'' says Christian Cámara, director of CEI's Florida Insurance Project. ''Unfortunately, his concern for preparedness must not have been foremost on his mind earlier this year when he decided to eliminate all funding from the My Safe Florida Home program—the one government initiative that actually helped Floridians prepare their homes and fortify them against hurricanes.''
Enacted by the Legislature and Governor Crist's predecessor in 2006, the My Safe Florida Home program was created to help families strengthen their homes against hurricanes by offering free home inspections and matching grant funds. During the past three years, the popular program provided free home inspections to over 400,000 families and helped retrofit over 33,000 homes. The program was allowed to expire in June after the Legislature chose to strip its funding per the governor's budgetary request.
Cámara believes the governor and Legislature should reenact this program during next year's regular session.
''Hurricane preparedness and mitigation are the only long-term solutions to Florida's hurricane problem. Lives are saved, properties are saved, and people can get back to their lives more quickly after a storm. Instead of offering Floridians an artificial holiday that generates some media coverage and photo-ops, Governor Crist should reconsider his position on My Safe Florida Home and urge the Legislature to reenact it.''
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