September 3

 The temperature today and tomorrow is supposed to be in the 90s. No gardening beyond watering the plants very early. Otherwise nothing planned.

Perusing the news this morning I found this--another about the crisis in the insurance industry and insurance companies pulling out of Florida. A few months ago the story was about insurance companies leaving California because of the fires. The article said that all 50 states have areas where insurance is difficult or nearly impossible to obtain which sent me on a search for more information. This Axios article gives more details on the conditions in the industry. I also saw mention of the problem of rebuilding the public infrastructure: roads, power lines, sewers, water treatment plants. Insurance is such a large part of our economic lives it is hard to imagine how we would do without it. We are expected to have life insurance, property insurance, auto insurance, health insurance. I have seen increasing ads for pet insurance. Legally, we can't drive a car without auto insurance though we often hear about some driver involved in an accident who doesn't. Mortgage companies/banks often won't approve a mortgage if the potential borrower doesn't have home owner's insurance which only covers the lenders interest in the house. To rebuild you have to have property insurance on the house and be aware of what catastrophes aren't covered--like flood. The articles noted that many communities are at a tipping point of whether the have the resources to rebuilt on site, to move, or can't rebuild at all. If we paid all of the premiums to guard against future disasters what living expenses would we not have the funds to pay for in the here and now: food, rent/mortgage, fuel/utilities.

Every now and then something a politician says just is so stupid I can't not comment. The Stupid of the Week award goes to Vivek Ramaswamy for his claim that he would LET Putin keep the UKRAINIAN territory Russia currently occupies and DEMAND he end the military cooperation he has with China. Point #1: Ramaswamy doesn't have control of Ukraine and it doesn't look like the Ukrainians are in the mood to keep Ramaswamy's promise for him. I guess he thinks we can "starve" Ukraine of weapons and money to force them to capitulate. But that will really roil our alliances to our detriment. Point #2: he assumes that Russia would give up Putin's fevered dream of a new Russian Empire if we simply end the sanctions. I have read a lot of contradicting accounts of how effective (or not) those sanctions have been. I doubt they are doing enough damage to make Putin do anything he doesn't want to do any way. Point #3: why in the hell does Ramaswamy think the U.S. has any leverage in the bilateral relations between adjacent countries a world away.

This is interesting. Retailers are changing what goods they carry and how it is stocked because of massive losses from shoplifting and organized theft.  We have seen changes over the last several years that parallel what the article describes. Walgreens has installed several locked shelves for high priced items. Target removed many of their electronics after a spate of smash and grab robberies. And other stores have changed what they stock and drastically dropped several products. Another account of the trend is here.