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