Actually insurance costs have gone up because of a reduction in the markets, they may lie and tell us its due to high court costs and settlements but really those things are drops in the bucket compared to the amount of money these people have lost in the markets recently.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the reason the markets went to crap was due to the poor investments of insurance companies pushing more and more money in the market.

The problem I think comes down to this and you guys hear it all the time no doubt.

****

Imagine you are on a quarterly call with analysts and exec's for StupidInc.

CEO of StupidInc says, "Last quarter we had 5% growth, this quarter we will have 2.5!!11"

Stock Broker Idiot Analyst on StupidInc, "I think 12% every year is a great idea!" -- these are the biggest moronic culprits. But exec's are at fault too for not telling them no.

****

Now imagine you are an employee of StupidInc.

*****

CEO says, "AMG Analyst said 12% a year or we are doomed!"

Employee says, "Uhh did you explain that if we have 12% growth every single year that in about 35 years every single person in the country would have to be our customer...?"

CEO says, "Whats our plan to get it done!"

Employee says, "HRm well we have 10 million customers, in 35 years that would be 488 million customers at 12% growth a year"

CEO says, "Don't give me numbers, give me a plan!"

Employee says, "Colonize and exploit aliens from other planets!?"

CEO says, "GREAT IDEA!"

Analyst says, "Perfect! and we can sell them insurance too!11"

CEO and Analyst have a stockgasm and moan in delight.

The employee swallows.

****

How many times have you seen a stock get pummeled for not meeting the same growth as the year before or for merely having the same growth? Constant growth that continues unabated in the end would cause insane inflation, and cause a destabilization in the market, which I think is what is happening right now. We really need to rethink how we measure companies success.

- The insane and twisted mind behind Paratwa