The recent horrendous floods in the Hunter Valley have reminded me (again) of another example of insurance market failure – flood insurance. It hasn’t hit the headlines yet, but it will. In the Australian insurance market, it is pretty close to impossible to buy insurance against flood. Wordings vary, butContinue Reading
As the baby boomer bulge works its way through the workforce, with fewer and few new entrants, (in 10 years time, there will be half the new entrants to the workforce each year that there were this year) it becomes more important for companies to figure out how to makeContinue Reading
There was the regularly quarterly article today, following the release of the latest labour force statistics, about how women earn less than men, with the gap narrowing very slightly in the last quarter. Varying reasons were given (Joe Hockey, for the government, drawing a long bow and claiming work choicesContinue Reading
There have been two major policy pieces about work and life in Australia recently. Each one recommending some change, but not especially effectively, judging by the results so far. It’s about Time – a project by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) examining the interactions between family responsibilitiesContinue Reading
I think I’m one of the few people in Sydney whose spirits rise at the site of a grey ghost (parking police). I live in an area which is mixed – about 50% of my street is businesses, mostly advertising agencies and design studios. The whole street is residents parkingContinue Reading
As I was reading the Financial Review this morning, this quote caught my eye: “The Howard government has raised the art of hypocrisy to levels not previously seen by mankind, but …. to actually block the [Qantas] takeover would be breathtakingly bad policy, politics and plain dumb.” I haven’t reallyContinue Reading
Longevity risk is the risk that you live too long. Not a problem, most people would think. But there’s a financial risk – if you live longer than the money you have saved during your lifetime will last. Most actuaries fervently believe that this a risk that you should insureContinue Reading
A friend sent me a link to the productivity commission’s latest survey on workforce participation rates. It is a look at different age groups, and their degree of participation in the workforce. A few interesting trends: the participation rate of men at nearly all ages has dropped fairly uniformly over theContinue Reading
I went to a fascinating talk on insurance risk from a former Florida insurance actuary recently. He was talking about the public policy issues involved in insuring people against natural catastrophes. Basically, insurance fulfils three main functions in the economy: transferring risk from the risk averse providing capital in theContinue Reading
There have been a couple of articles (probably because it is the silly season) recently about the unaffordability of pre-schools in NSW, compared with other Australian states. The vast majority of pre-schools in NSW cost about $30 a day, with most children going for the year before school, for twoContinue Reading
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