Folly

There’s an interesting post from Hellasious on Sudden Debt about the fundamental wrongs in the US economy (which shades over into general considerations on the American Way of Life).His 3 facts are these:Fact 1: There is too much debt in the economy to be properly serviced by the earned income generated. Total debt has doubled as a [...]

Two years ago, I was doing a deposition with a witness in a very long-running, very messy and very costly reinsurance dispute. It was the third time that we had been through the process, with various parties, so we were very familiar with the facts, the issues and the questions likely to be put. Asking [...]

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Excellent LRB article this week from Michael Kare, “professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College”[1] all about the world’s continuing, in fact growing dependence on oil - “the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that global consumption will rise from 86.9 million barrels a day in 2008 to 94.1 million in 2013.” Professor Kare [...]

[Warning: No reinsurance content] There’s a difference between the two, of course.  Today, it rather looks as if justice took a back seat to ‘legality’ in the Lords. First, they approved the extradition of computer hacker and self-styled ‘bumbling computer nerd’ Gary Mackinnon to the US.  Officials there are said to wish to see him ‘fry’, though on [...]

–Begin Daily Mail rant– More ridiculous politically-correct nonsense from HM Government (following the Abu Qatada debacle). This time, according to the Times: THE Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights. [...]

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Following revelations of Mr Spitzer’s own alleged “irregular dealings” there is no little sense of satisfaction on Wall Street at his probable demise: One might call it Shakespearian if there were a shred of nobleness in the story of Eliot Spitzer’s fall. There is none. Governor Spitzer, who made his career by specializing in not just [...]

I am staggered by this. According to the British Lung Federation: Less than a third of tradespeople are aware asbestos exposure can cause cancer Only 12% of tradespeople know asbestos exposure can kill them Nearly a third (30%) wrongly believe most asbestos has been removed from UK buildings Three quarters (74%) have had no training in how to [...]

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As news emerges that Merrill Lynch is posting a loss of almost $8bn for the latest quarter (which seems like rather a lot), my eye was caught by this lovely little throw-away snippet in the FT (subs. required): Robert Law, banks analyst at Lehman Brothers, said: “One of the biggest issues with the sector [...]

UPDATE: Brighty got 7 years. Hope he serves at least 8 of them. [24/10/2007] And so farewell, Mr Bright. You were too Independent for your own good–and for many others’ good too, it seems. Brighty is behind bars today, awaiting sentencing, for his part in the downfall of Independent Insurance 6 years ago. He [...]