RE: WTC Insurance

From: Stephan Vladimir Bugaj (stephan@bugaj.com)
Date: Mon Sep 17 2001 - 13:09:27 MDT


Bill Gates could pay the whole estimated $20Billion in damages, and still
be left with somewhere between $20-40Billion for himself.

Odd, huh?

Buffett can say that calmly because like the individual companies, the
holding companies spread the risk. If one reinsurer was too heavily
involved in insuring WTC area holdings, then there are a bunch that were
not. The insurance and reinsurance businesses make such huge profits and
at such high margins, it's hard to feel sorry for them having to actually
perform the service they claim their business is structured to perform.

I'm sure the industry will be fine, and they'll raise rates just to get a
little extra in the end and their huge margins will be fine in the long
run. No need to cry for them, they're big boys, they'll be ok.

- S

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
[mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of Mike Lorrey
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 2:14 PM
To: extropians@extropy.org
Subject: Re: WTC Insurance

Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
> One thing I have not seen mentioned by anyone is insurance. All of the
> insurance policies I have seen specifically exclude war and acts of
> terrorism. As far as I know, none of the damage is covered by insurance,
> none of the equipment or losses will be reimbursed, and none of the life
> insurance policies will be honored. Does anybody have more specific
> information about the insurance industry's response to this?

Yes, I've heard that several european insurance re-insurors will be
spending $500-800 million to settle claims, and Warren Buffett calmly
said on 60 minutes last night that he expects at least one, if not more
of the insurance companies his Berkshire Hathaway group owns to go
bankrupt, or nearly so, paying off settlements.



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