carapace – Not your father's america

News release: "Manufacturing hourly compensation costs in the United States in 2010 were lower than in several northern and western European countries, Australia, and Canada, but higher than in the United Kingdom and 19 countries in southern and eastern Europe, Asia, and South America, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. U.S. hourly compensation costs rose about 2 percent from the previous year to $34.74. From 1997 to 2010, U.S. compensation cost competitiveness in manufacturing improved relative to all but five countries covered: Brazil, Germany, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan."

The Office of Insurance Regulation is the public hurricane loss projection model’s primary user. The model, which was developed by Florida International University and its partners, provides the office an independent benchmark tool for reviewing the reasonableness of rates proposed in insurer filings. The public model’s operation and maintenance is supported primarily by state funds. In Fiscal Year 2010-11, Florida International University received $588,409 from the Office of Insurance Regulation, most of which is used to support the model’s routine operation and maintenance. During the same period, 12 private insurers paid the university a total of $129,338 to use the model; these fees only covered the cost associated with providing requested services. The direct expenditures for operating, maintaining, and updating the public model were $723,937 in Fiscal Year 2010-11. To further increase private funding for the model, the university could market the model or enhance the model to make it more useful to private insurers. The Legislature could also consider several options for the public model: discontinue state funding, reduce state funding as it is offset by increasing fees paid by insurers, or continue the current funding arrangement.

http://www.oppaga.state.fl.us/summary.aspx?reportnum=11-25