One can correctly argue that what comes out of a politician’s mouth is some combination of what someone told him to say, the last thing someone said to him, some political trial balloon or actually something that the person thinks is right. I leave you to your own devices in assessing probabilities to each.

As a California resident for 36 years (insert joke here), it never ceases to amaze me how the rest of the world gets regularly amazed by just how stupid we can create policy in the state that engenders the exact opposite result of what it intended.

To wit, this is a very readable and deadly accurate assessment of the world of insurance, elected officials and our fine state. Not good.

I have learned the hard way that buying “mess” in publicly traded insurance stocks is a very difficult road to riches. I would argue that the 180 is probably better – buy the better and more expensive company that had the discipline(or the luck) to have avoided the mess d’jure and has the capital to start afresh in “gouging” to meet demand. Nothing fixes high prices like a bunch of people allowed to gouge on day 1.