Good 3rd Quarter 2013 for Peoperty/Casualty Insurers

Good recent P/C underwriting results due in large part to a mild hurricane and catastrophe season (knock on wood).

- Rick

Deaths Due to Hospital Medical Mistakes

A reference on the Scientific American site to a new study of the magnitude of this issue.  The numbers have always been thought to be rather large.  But:

"Now comes a study in the current issue of the Journal of Patient Safety that says the numbers may be much higher 2014 between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year who go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death..."

- Rick

Apparently, ANYTHING can be insured!

Here's an interesting one:  "Taobao Offers Moon Insurance for Mid-Autumn Festival."

Here's a quote:

People in 41 cities in China can insure their enjoyment of the full moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival from Monday... Internet users can insure themselves against inconveniences during their moon gazing at the Mid-Autumn Festival, and will be paid off if they cannot see the moon because of poor weather on the day.

- Rick

Gender Differences With Respect to Risk

An article from the Scientific American website, "Men and Women Gauge Risk Differently."  Here's a quote:

"When making financial decisions, men are more likely to focus on the bigger picture, whereas women more often pay closer attention to details."

At the Actuarial Research Conference in Philadelphia last week, I gave a presentation on hyperbolic / delay discounting -- basically, the idea that we often prefer smaller-sooner to bigger-later (leaving out all the economics and mathematics, which of course doesn't do the idea any justice...), even if a classical economic framework and interpretation would suggest that that's the wrong decision.  So that complicates the modeling of human behavior -- as does the research underlying this short article.

- Rick

What's Happened to Mr. / Ms. Right?

Consistent with recent past tendencies, marriage rates in the U.S. continue to decline.  Important for projecting future demographic variables -- although traditional marriage is less and less directly correlated with fecundity, or even with status as a retirement beneficiary.

- Rick

Being Cliche Doesn't Make It Less True

A nice, concise, direct post titled "Want To Be Taken Seriously?  Become a Better Writer."

The title says it all.  All students (among many, many others) should read and embrace every word.

- Rick

The Urban Institute today released a report titled "Lost Generations?  Wealth Building among Young Americans."  Here's a summary and representative passage:

For many, the American dream of working hard, saving more, and becoming wealthier than one's parents holds true.

Unless you're under 40.  Today, those in Gen X and Gen Y have accumulated less wealth than their parents did at that age over a quarter-century ago.  Their average wealth in 2010 was 7 percent below that of those in their 20s and 30s in 1983.

Certainly, this has implications for future actuarial applications in retirement, pensions, personal wealth, etc.  Not to mention just plain old personal considerations...

- Rick

Cat(Scan) Got Your Tongue?

It's not uncommon for people, especially earlier in their careers, to find themselves not saying much in group settings.  As this article, "Speaking Up Is Hard to Do: Researchers Explain Why" from The Wall Street Journal (Feb. 7, 2012) mentions, it is not always simple shyness at work.  Neorologically, it turns out that, under certain circumstances, we actually become less intelligent in group settings...

- Rick