To advance our mission of bringing you all the risk management news that’s fit to print, we will be doing these “Risk Management Links of the Day” posts roughly … you guessed it … every day. Hopefully, it will be a nice blend of things that you need to know and things that are just interesting and you might not have otherwise come across in your daily internet travels.
Shifting through all the news of the day takes some time, of course, so please do send along any interesting news items or off-beat, risk-related stories you come across to me at jwade@rims.org. Enjoy.
- In October, our own Emily Holbrook discussed the dangers of text messaging while driving in the Risk Management article “Unsafe at Any Speed.” Well, according to this “Driven to Distraction” piece, it seems that the problem of driving dangers related to phones goes back well before even the cell phone, and has in fact been a controversial topic since the 1960s, when car phone manufacturers used advertisements (like the one above) and other strategies to help encourage users to talk while they drive. “Critics of the [mobile phone] industry argue that its education efforts over the years provided a weak counterbalance to its encouragement of cellphone use by drivers and to its efforts to fight regulations banning the use of cellphones while driving.”
- The Copenhagen Climate talks take a turn for the irrelevant as major developing countries like India and China threaten to walk out in protest. The New York Times has all the coverage from the summit while the Insurance Information Institute supplies an in-depth breakdown of climate change-related insurance issues.
- In boneheaded government regulator news: The TSA inadvertently made many of its passenger screening protocols public knowledge when it posted its 93-page operating manual online last Spring. It addition to detailed technical info about x-ray screening and bomb detection, the error revealed 12 countries whose passport holders are automatically given heightened security scrutiny and contained pictures of the credentials used by CIA officials, Congress members and the federal air marshals. “Stewart A. Baker, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, said that the manual will become a textbook for those seeking to penetrate aviation security and that its leaking was serious. ‘It increases the risk that terrorists will find a way through the defenses,’ Baker said. ‘The problem is there are so many different holes that while [the TSA] can fix any one of them by changing procedures and making adjustments in the process . . . they can’t change everything about the way they operate.'” Real Cracker Jack job on this one, TSA.
- The House has passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (HR 4173), which would create a Federal Insurance Office and a Financial Services Oversight Council, by a vote of 223 to 202. Senate approval awaits.
- December’s Harper’s Magazine featured an excellent yet disturbing cover story: “The General Electric Superfund: Why the Hudson River Will Never Run Clean.” (Subscription required)
- A federal court ruled that an attorney’s personal emails remain private even if sent from a work computer. Says one of the attorneys involved: “Where someone who uses their company e-mail, whether with the Justice Department or someone else, intends the communication to be confidential and takes reasonable steps to ensure the confidentiality … there is no waiver of the attorney-client privilege.”
- Of all the fallout from the September 2008 market collapse, the Bank of America acquisition of Merrill Lynch has been the most controversial. The Atlantic featured the best (and most accessible) article I’ve seen on the topic, detailing the unusual nature of the meetings that BoA’s leadership had with the SEC and the Fed as the merger was being finalized and strongly suggesting that Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke essentially strong-armed the bank’s CEO Ken Lewis into acquiring Merrill, despite strong reservations about the book-keeping info that was being revealed through due diligence. This piece by Corporate Counsel, however, suggests that BoA did plenty of bullying of its own in forcing the DC officials to pony up more bailout money than they wanted to in order to mollify the bank’s concerns about Merrill’s balance sheet and prevent BoA’s leadership from using it’s last-minute opt-out provision (known as a “material adverse chance” or MAC clause) to cancel the deal before it was finalized. The SEC has been investigating the details of the merger for some time. And on Friday, the watchdog announced that the investigation is being ramped up. Further developments are certainly forthcoming in the month’s ahead. In the meantime, you can also check Corporate Counsel’s exhaustive coverage of the controversy.
- “Getting It Right and Getting It Wrong with New Media” highlights some companies that are overcoming the risks of social media to heighten their brands — and some who need to rethink their strategies.
- An analyst with Celent sees rough times ahead for the P/C industry. Says Mike Fitzgerald: “The negative rating outlook issued by Fitch Ratings [Wednesday] for U.S. property and casualty is warranted and, in addition to the pricing and demand concerns mentioned in the press release, there are loss and expense pressures which should dampen expectations.”
Find an interesting link? Email me any stories, videos or images you come across and would like to see included. Or just follow me on Twitter @RiskMgmt and pass it along that way.