Today's Wall Street Journal features a page 1 story entitled, "After Storms, Florida Wakes Up to a New Insurance Reality". This article provides a very compelling analysis of the economics of catastrophe risk, focusing specifically upon the "special case" of Florida windstorms since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
The Wall Street Journal asks a series of questions to a number of Nobel Laureates in economics. On one question, whether the global income distribution will be more equal 50 years from now, several of them say "yes," because they are optimistic about China and India. This article is definitely worth reading!
This past summer I read a number of interesting books, but one book in particular really stands out. This book is entitled "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse", by New Republic senior editor Gregg Easterbrook. Easterbrook shows that by any measure of affluence; be it health care, leisure, or technology, the average American enjoys a quality of life beyond anyone's wildest dreams even a few decades ago. The "paradox" is that in spite of all this affluence, the percentage of Americans who characterize themselves as "happy" hasn't changed during the past 50 years, and the percentage of those who describe themselves as "very happy" is down and continues to decline. If you don't get around to reading this book, at least check out Chuck Colson's brief essays which elaborate upon Easterbook's finidngs: Essay 1 (published August 24, 2004), and Essay 2 (published August 26, 2004).