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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023

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Why not require banks to buy insurance instead of government regulation? Get market pricing on risks instead of government fiat?

Insurance is a key if not the main function of the US government and many other governments. They can print money. There’s no insurance company big enough to insure. SVB. Maybe a consortium could also insure a little. But the insurance industry is not bigger than the banking industry. They couldn’t insure a bank issue that is systematic with multiple failing. You would move the stystematic risks for bank failure to banks failure causing insurance failure. AIG had a quant insurance unit that insured some financial risks and surprise surprise they sold it too cheap and blew up.

Why not require banks to buy insurance instead of government regulation?

Forcing banks to buy insurance still is government regulation.

Yes it is. I should’ve made it clear. One is command and control (ie you must do XYZ). Think old school environmental regulation. The second is more like a carbon tax. It regulates via pricing arguably allowing a more accurate risk.

Who are you going to buy global financial collapse insurance from? What counterparty can be relied on to pay out in such a scenario?

Who are you going to buy global financial collapse insurance from? What counterparty can be relied on to pay out in such a scenario?

You gotta have physical. Physical gold, yes. But also physical land you can reach, physical guns, and a physical body of followers you can trust.

In the case of global financial collapse the dollar is probably worthless so who cares?