Catastrophes and capitalism: can capital markets protect people from disasters?

灾难与资本主义:资本市场能否保护人们免受灾难侵袭?

Money Talks from The Economist

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2025-02-07

49 分钟
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For years, insurers have been reducing the number of policies they issue to Californian homeowners. And after last month's wildfires, buying insurance is going to get even more difficult—and a lot more expensive—for people living in the state. But at the same time, the market for catastrophe bonds is booming. Can one of the world's fastest-growing (and most lucrative) asset classes make places like Hollywood insurable again? Hosts: Mike Bird and Ethan Wu. Guests: Richard Pennay, CEO at Aon Securities; and John Seo, co-founder of Fermat Capital Management, which invests in catastrophe bonds. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.
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  • The Economist. Right now I'm standing in Altadena with some contractors and some folks from the Environmental Protection Agency watching them do hazardous waste removal.

  • Aaron Braun is The Economist's West Coast correspondent.

  • She's been to one of the neighborhoods ravaged by the L.A. fires to see the recovery process.

  • So they were honestly digging through with their hands and with shovels.

  • One of the lots here to see if there's anything that might explode that's hazardous,

  • pesticides, paint cans, lithium batteries, that kind of thing.

  • I'm Harry Allen.

  • I'm an EPA on-scene coordinator.

  • What are the risks there with the batteries?

  • Yeah, so if you have a fire that's... partially consumes a lithium-ion battery array,

  • whether it's in a tool or a toy or an EV, those batteries can react without warning.

  • And when they react, they heat up and they start to expand.

  • The top pops off and then there's a jet fire.

  • So like a little Roman candle.

  • And if you've got thousands of these, you've got thousands of jet fires.

  • The lot that I'm at right now,

  • the only thing that's still standing is part of the chimney.

  • And that's something that's been really characteristic of these fires where I'm looking around the neighborhood right now and you can just see chimney,

  • chimney, chimney, and everything below it is just rubble.

  • So hazardous waste removal is the first phase of cleanup for these fires.