Socially Conscious Insurance Underwriting By: Mark W Adams

Matt Yglesias just earned his reputation as the brightest kid in class.

In November, there’s going to be an election. And in January, there’ll
be a new President. And in the interim, progressive groups will
probably come up with a lot of “ten ways to make everything awesome”
proposals. And it’ll take 41 conservative senators to filibuster them
all, and so they’ll all be filibustered. But if the government directly
controls major financial institutions, that would give the new
administration extraordinary leverage over the national
economy. Suppose the new CEO of AIG decided he didn’t want to insure
assets of companies whose executives make unseemly multiples of the
national median income? There are all kinds of crazy things you could
do. And of course not all of them woul dbe good ideas. But some of them
would! And the smart folks on our side need to be figuring out which
ones they are. It seems doubtful to me that a progressive
administration would ever be able to get away with this much
nationalizing of everything, but what’s done is done and I think it
creates a real opportunity for “socially conscious insurance
underwriting” or whatever you care to call it.

If we're going to have a more socialist economic landscape, why not act like it?  How ironic the red-baiters handed the DFHs such a gift.  Then again, only Nixon could go to China . . .