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There’s a big important bailout no one is talking about. To be fair there’s so many pigs at the trough it& #39;s hard to follow all the action. But don’t take your eyes off what’s happening with the insurance industry. It’s setting an awfully important precedent for climate change 
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Turns out businesses thought their insurance coverage offset interruption losses during the Covid crisis. That’s what insurance is for right? But they didn’t read the fine print & insurers are denying everything in sight. Now it& #39;s a political problem https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/26/insurers-avoid-9-11-style-coronavirus-backlash-149462">https://www.politico.com/news/2020...
House lawmakers thought that wasn’t cool & told insurers they should cover those losses. State regulators - where most insurance is regulated - defended the industry. So now we have a problem - what to do? Create a federal bailout program and let insurers manage it duh!
But here’s the rub. Insurers aren’t only denying those suffering from this crisis. They’re already doing it w/ our other looming crisis - climate change. For example CA regulators are already forcing insurers to not drop homeowners impacted by wildfires https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-bans-insurers-from-dropping-homes-in-wildfire-areas-11575585626">https://www.wsj.com/articles/...
But of course climate impacts will get worse, as will this behavior including insurers pouring gas on the proverbial fire with their investments. Last week CT - insurance capital of the world - revealed its insurers had invested $221 B in fossil fuels https://www.insureourfuture.us/updates/2020/4/9/connecticut-insurance-companies-invest-262-billion-in-fossil-fuels-according-to-report">https://www.insureourfuture.us/updates/2...
The top 30 insurers operating in CT have over 10% of their premiums invested in fossil fuels. A crazy decision given how badly fossil fuels have outperformed the market - in the wrong direction - since the crisis hit https://insight.factset.com/sp-500-projected-to-report-first-double-digit-decline-in-earnings-10-in-10-years-in-q2?campaign_id=4&emc=edit_dk_20200401&instance_id=17243&nl=dealbook®i_id=89203938&segment_id=23492&te=1&user_id=ac2feabcdaf49eb6b5aefe374efabc3f">https://insight.factset.com/sp-500-pr...
CT State Senator & co-chair of the Committee @MattLesser who released the report said "Climate Change will have a massive impact on all aspects of life...including expanding our vulnerability to emerging infectious diseases and pandemics” Indeed. Now back to our federal drama
The fact is we’re setting a powerful precedent for insurers. Now is not the time to create a bailout program w/out regulating the behavior making the covid & climate crises worse. If we fail the decision will come back to haunt us in the next inevitable financial crisis
