The difference in home price trends between US regions is not about weather or jobs, but housing supply. States in the South and West that permit widespread new construction are seeing prices fall, while "Not In My Backyard" (NIMBY) states in the Northeast and Midwest face shortages and rising prices.

A government shutdown has a hidden economic impact: it halts the National Flood Insurance Program. Because private insurers avoid this high-risk market, homeowners in flood zones cannot get new or renewed policies, freezing an estimated 1,400 mortgage-dependent home sales every day the shutdown continues.

Severe rent freezes can make property maintenance and ownership financially unviable. In extreme cases where an asset becomes a liability, the only way for owners to recoup their investment may be to burn the building down and collect insurance money, a perverse outcome of a well-intentioned policy.

The prospect of future climate events is having immediate, tangible economic consequences. Rising insurance rates and reduced coverage availability in at-risk areas like Florida and California are already depressing property values and the broader economic outlook, demonstrating that climate risk is a current, not just future, problem.

The state's most visible problems—homelessness, high costs, and corporate exodus—are framed not as complex policy failures but as the direct result of a singular, decades-long failure to build enough housing, office space, factories, energy, and transportation infrastructure.

Governments in climate-vulnerable regions are increasingly using financial instruments like catastrophic bonds ('cat bonds') to manage risk. These bonds provide immediate capital for rebuilding after a disaster, offering a faster and more reliable source of funding than traditional aid channels and becoming a key part of resilience strategy.

Caruso claims the catastrophic Palisades fire was "completely preventable." A smaller fire occurred in the same location just a week earlier, and authorities failed to pre-deploy resources despite severe wind warnings. His core leadership principle is that predictable risks, if ignored, become preventable disasters.

Insurers like Aviva are finding it increasingly difficult to price risk for predictable climate-related catastrophes, such as houses repeatedly built on known floodplains. The near-inevitability of these events makes them uninsurable, prompting the creation of hybrid government-backed schemes where the private market can no longer operate.

AI and big data give insurers increasingly precise information on individual risk. As they approach perfect prediction, the concept of insurance as risk-pooling breaks down. If an insurer knows your house will burn down and charges an equivalent premium, you're no longer insured; you're just pre-paying for a disaster.