Metlife underwriting

The British government has listened to months of industry lobbying and launched an emergency £500M ($646M) film and TV coronavirus production insurance fund, which could open the floodgates to a backlog of shoots worth an estimated £1BN ($1.3BN). In a massive boost for an industry stricken by the pandemic, trade body Pact announced the insurance solution in a release on Tuesday afternoon. It signals that producers can get back into filming with a safety net, given that the fund will effectively underwrite the cost of productions closing in the event of a second lockdown. Pact, flanked by the BFI and major industry players, has led months of constructive talks with the government over an insurance solution. The discussions have taken longer than hoped due to the unprecedented nature of the intervention and the fact that European Union clearance was required. Related Story Reopening Hollywood: Two Firms Take First Steps Toward COVID-19 Insurance For Indie Industry Desperate … [Read more...] about UK Government Opens Floodgates To Production Restarts By Launching $646M Emergency Covid Insurance Fund

C ue the credits: the era of financial thuggery is officially over. Three hellish years of panic, all done and gone – the mass bankruptcies, midnight bailouts, shotgun mergers of dying megabanks, high-stakes SEC investigations, all capped by a legislative orgy in which industry lobbyists hurled more than $600 million at Congress. It all supposedly came to an end one Wednesday morning a few weeks back, when President Obama, flanked by hundreds of party flacks and congressional bigwigs, stepped up to the lectern at an extravagant ceremony to sign into law his sweeping new bill to clean up Wall Street. Obama’s speech introducing the massive law brimmed with celebratory finality. He threw around lofty phrases like “never again” and “no more.” He proclaimed the end of unfair credit-card-rate hikes and issued a fatwa on abusive mortgage practices and the shady loans that helped fuel the debt bubble. The message was clear: The sheriff was padlocking the Wall Street casino, and the … [Read more...] about Wall Street’s Big Win

I was mulling a New York Post report that half the employees at The New York Times are afraid to say what they’re thinking when it hit me.  It’s time for Free Speech Insurance. This is nothing like libel insurance, which protects a publisher, and maybe a writer, from defamation claims. Under a Free Speech policy from Mutual of Nowhere, you wouldn’t be allowed to defame, abuse or promise violence against anyone. TJ Ducklo would still be out of a White House job if he threatened to “destroy” a Politico reporter. No claim there. No compensation. But good free speech coverage would pay if you are fired, suspended, banned from professional status or otherwise deprived of income or community standing for voicing a thought that bothers someone else. Related Story Former New York Times Reporter Donald McNeil Responds To Controversy Over Remarks This might be an entirely new thing for insurance. (With a quick Google search, I couldn’t find much beyond a satire … [Read more...] about Free Speech Insurance: An Idea That Could Even Help The Oscars