Not that we need any more bad news, but there is a dynamic in the ebb and flow of the property casualty industry that is causing me some concern. That is, all things being equal, the performance of the P&C industry usually lags what is happening in the general economy. This is driven by the [...]

The major international equity indexes have lost ground this week, dropping by 3 to 4% in average. It appears that the recent numbers issued by companies have increased the global fear of a deepening recession. Despite a clear sign of confidence regarding its own future provided by Munich Re last week and notably its decision [...]

Celent senior analyst Jeff Goldberg This event is free for Celent clients and invited guests. Please click here for more information.

If you think twittering is for the birds, then think again. US President Obama and Stephen Fry (a renowned British actor) are both active users of the micro-blogging website – twitter.com. Earlier this month, Stephen Fry was stuck in lift in London and used Twitter to talk to his followers – all 180,000 of them [...]

I participated in a “virtual roundtable” at Insurance & Technology magazine on the topic of Green IT.  If that interests you, check out my thoughts (and the thoughts of the other contributors) here: http://insurancetech.com/management-strategies/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=213300855 It seems like so much of the Green IT conversation is about hardware: lower-energy servers, computer recycling, increased virtualization, carbon-neutral data centers…  While [...]

I participated in a “virtual roundtable” at Insurance & Technology magazine on the topic of Green IT. If that interests you, check out my thoughts (and the thoughts of the other contributors) here: http://insurancetech.com/management-strategies/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=213300855 It seems like so much of the Green IT conversation is about hardware: lower-energy servers, computer recycling, increased virtualization, carbon-neutral data [...]

I had an opportunity to talk to an independent consultant who has worked for some time now with insurance companies in Japan. He specializes in new technologies involving calculation engines. His experiences give some insight into the reasons why these emerging technologies are being adopted relatively slowly, and may also give some insight as to [...]

I was struck by CNA’s fourth quarter results where they reported an improvement over last year’s Q4 combined ratio — 89.1%. Once upon a time, that would have been “golden”. But, because they recognized losses of over $300million on mark-to-market actions for some of their investments, they LOST money for the year. What a leadership [...]

Over coffee, a colleague, Miqdaad Versi, and I have been discussing green IT in the context of 2009. How can it remain a priority with the current crisis unfolding? We both agreed that green IT is more than feeling good about one’s carbon footprint — green IT is an approach to sourcing, utilising, and disposing [...]

Celent senior analyst Donald Light This event is free for Celent clients and invited guests. Please click here for more information.