Dr Eric Crampton: Gambling on futures

Many pre-modern people believed gambling was bad and suppressed it.

If you think about it, your life insurer is a bookie betting that you’re not going to die this year. If he wins, you pay him. If you win, he pays your estate. (I play that game to lose.)

Because it was like gambling, insurance was illegal in Western countries until just a few centuries ago.

Mike's Minute: A reality check for the Government on climate hit areas

We end the week with a reality check.

I was a bit underwhelmed by the Government's response to the last couple of week's weather events.

$2 million is not a lot of money, which in a way is good because it indicates the damage isn't that bad.

The damage is that bad. It's just the big stuff, the roads and bridges and infrastructure, is being paid for out of contingency budgets in various Government's departments.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are the insurance companies doing us a favour on flood-prone areas?

The thing we’d been warned about with climate change has now happened - AA Insurance has stopped offering new insurance policies for Westport because of the risk of flooding.

At the very end of last year, AA Insurance wrote to the Buller District mayor advising that the company would be putting a - what they call temporary - stop to new insurance policies for properties in the 7825 postcode, which includes Westport, Carters Beach, and Cape Foulwind.

Kerre Woodham: Is insurance becoming a nice-to-have?

We've seen floods in Europe, fires in California and in the last couple of years, weather events here at home.

As of the 1st of September 2023, insurers had paid out $2.053 billion on claims relating to the Auckland Anniversary flood and Cyclone Gabrielle.

Sir Bob Jones: The coming insurance crisis

The catastrophic California fires will hit every New Zealander in the pocket. That’s because all insurances world-wide, are pooled.

That’s hardly surprising after all if you’re in the insurance business your first and most important client and thus initial step as an insurance company, is to insure yourself.

Kerre Woodham: We'd better start taking heed of the things that work - as well as those that don't

The Government and councils affected by this year's floods are slowly working their way towards a resolution of the buyout of residents of the most affected properties in Hawkes Bay, Auckland, Coromandel and the Far North.

The Auckland relief package has just been announced, well, in excess of a billion dollars in terms of costs, however, the Government and council contributions will be net of any insurance proceeds.