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Monthly Archives: February 2011
Where’s the Romance?!
A dose of reality is always nice, but yikes: It’s hard to capture the linked-to post in an excerpt, and even harder to gut-check yourself through sentences like this (particularly in the context of insight like this): I don’t care … Continue reading
Posted in DW Smackdown
Inmates Run the Asylum
Just finished Russ’ podcast with Daron Acemoglu on inequality and the financial crisis. There’s a lot of interesting stuff here. The genesis of the podcast is a book by Ragu Rajan that I haven’t read. The ideas (as discussed in … Continue reading
Posted in economics
Douchebag Alert!
Man do I hate this post. Let me count the ways: Basic Math: I’d say I correctly broke down how a dollar of insurance premium gets distributed, but I made two errors. I stand by the main cost being claims … Continue reading
Posted in DW Smackdown, insurance business strategy
Destroying Jobs [not the guy!]
I’m obsessed with this idea that I work in a commodity business. That statement breezes through quite a lot of legitimate criticism, but I don’t care. I’m convinced. And since I am in a commodity business, success at the margin … Continue reading
Posted in economics, insurance business strategy
1 Comment
HR is a Low Priority
One frustration about working for a small company is the hiring ‘Strategy’.* The process (for general entry-level spots) goes something like this: 1. Realize you should have hired someone 6 months ago 2. Hire the next person you meet that … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
The Systems in Your Life
For some reason I have an enormous affinity for the word ‘system’. I like to caricature the world as being broken into system-based activities and status-based activities. The former being the entire world economy before, say, 1900, and the latter … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Insurance is Complicated
Insurers are set up to pay three kinds of expenses: 1. overhead and commissions (under their control); 2. predictable claims (whose risk insurers ‘understand’); and, 3. crazily aggregating black mamba catastrophe claims (bolts from the blue). Let’s play CEO: which … Continue reading
Posted in insurance, insurance business strategy
1 Comment
Jumping the Shark?
Back in 2008 I started following a blog called “Obama in Kenya”. It was a catalog of pictures of Obama paraphernalia in Kenya. Kenyans were pretty fired up. It was neat but fell into disuse in the February, 2009 or … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Triceps Surae
Otherwise known as the calf muscles. Weird word. (did a bit of research and, apparently, the muscle and the baby cow are only coincidental homonyms). Anyway, the first book I ever read on exercise was by Joe Weider, who more … Continue reading
Posted in sports
Brokers
Second-hand story: A colleague of mine was at the bar before dinner with a client and a few others. A reinsurer walks in (reinsurers sell, client buys, we’re in between) and this client, a rambunctious sort, challenges him: “So, [blank], … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
