What a lot of questions and worries we have today, so many more than in the past. Take investments. Historically, returns from the asset side of the balance sheet have contributed a meaningful percentage of the insurance industry's overall profitability.
And in the great age of disinflation, from Volcker's arrival at the Fed in 1980 right up to 2006, P&C (re)insurance investment used to be dead easy - buy a load of safe bonds, match their maturity to your average reserve duration and collect your risk-free return.
No longer. Easy yield fell away, and so we chased it where we could find it, slowly upping our collective risk to the point that in 2008 we reached a bizarre crossroads, where our investments subtracted more from our collective balance sheets than Hurricane Ike - whose capital model predicted that one?
Please click here to download the 2011 Monte Carlo Capital Roundtable.