Bloomberg (March 6)
“However California’s next monumental blaze begins, the toll will be vast. People will be injured, some will die. Thousands of homes will be destroyed. When the smoke clears, the most populous US state, home to Hollywood, Silicon Valley and a real estate market worth more than $9 trillion, will be ground zero for a sweeping financial crisis.”
Tags: $9 trillion, Blaze, California, Destroyed, Die, Ground zero, Hollywood, Homes, Injured, Monumental, Real estate market, Silicon Valley, Smoke, Toll, U.S., Vast
Council on Foreign Relations (August 25)
“American homeowners already coping with extreme weather now face a new risk: disappearing property insurance. Private companies have increasingly reduced coverage, concluding that the risks—and potential losses—threatened by climate change outweigh probable profits. As of now, this primarily affects a handful of coastal U.S. states, including California. In other states, insurers have substantially increased the price of property insurance.”
Tags: California, Climate change, Coastal, Coverage, Extreme weather, Homeowners, Potential losses, Private companies, Profits, Property insurance, Risks, U.S.
Tampa Bay Times (July 11)
“On Tuesday, Farmers Insurance informed the state it was dropping home, auto and umbrella policies across Florida, potentially affecting tens of thousands of people. It’s the fourth company to leave the Florida market in the last year — most citing rising risks from hurricanes. Farmers, a large company with a national presence, also has reduced new business in California, citing extreme weather and wildfire threats.”
Tags: Auto, California, Dropping, Extreme weather, Farmers Insurance, Florida, Home, Hurricanes, New business, Policies, Rising risks
San Francisco Chronical (May 27)
“State Farm, California’s largest property and casualty insurer as of 2021, stopped issuing home, business and casualty insurance policies in the state Saturday, citing wildfire risks and rising construction costs…. The state has suffered increasingly massive and destructive wildfires in recent years, leading to scarcer and more expensive insurance policies in wildfire-prone zones.”
Tags: Business, California, Casualty, Construction costs, Destructive, Home, Insurer, Massive, Policies, Property, Rising, Risks, State Farm, Wildfires
American Banker (March 20)
“After bank merger-and-acquisition activity slowed substantially in 2022, it could reach a standstill following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank in California and Signature Bank in New York.” Their “sudden demise… injected hefty doses of uncertainty into the financial system and raised doubts about the veracity of regulatory oversight.” Because they missed vulnerabilities, “bank supervisors are likely to further ramp up reviews of banks’ potential weaknesses,” which is likely to “extend to bank M&A.”
Tags: 2022, Bank, California, Doubts, Financial system, M&A, New York, Regulatory oversight, Signature Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, Standstill, Sudden, Uncertainty, Veracity
American Banker (January 10)
“When depositors began pulling money out of Silvergate Capital Corp. following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the California bank shored up its liquidity by tapping a quasi-government agency not typically known as a lender of last resort.” The $4.3 billion lifeline that “Silvergate got from the Home Loan Bank System shows one way in which the crypto industry has managed to find its way into the mainstream banking system.”
Tags: $4.3 billion, Bank, California, Cryptocurrency exchange, Depositors, FTX, Home Loan Bank System, Lender of last resort, Lifeline, Liquidity, Money, Silvergate Capital. Collapse
Scientific American (May 20)
“When California suffers a heat wave, it leans heavily on hydropower from the Pacific Northwest to keep the lights on. But that hydropower may not always be available when it’s most needed” due to climate change. “Higher temperatures means snowmelt occurs earlier in the year and leaves less water available for power generation during the depths of summer. The result is a heightened risk of blackouts during extreme heat waves as a result of less hydro availability.”
Tags: Availability, Blackouts, California, Climate change, Heat wave, Hydropower, Pacific Northwest, Power generation, Risk, Snowmelt, Summer, Temperatures, Water
Los Angeles Times (November 23)
“L.A.’s infamous Thanksgiving traffic gridlock” is “expected to return with vengeance” after taking 2020 off for Covid. “An estimated 3.8 million Southern Californians will be driving to their holiday destinations — up 9% from last year and only 1% less than in 2019, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.”
Tags: 2019, 2021, Automobile Club of Southern California, California, Covid, Destinations, Gridlock, Holiday, Infamous, L.A., Thanksgiving, Traffic
Los Angeles Times (October 21)
“As more communities across California require proof of vaccination at many retailers and other public venues, the battle over enforcement of the new rules is just beginning to heat up.” Though “many businesses have welcomed these sorts of rules,” others resent the additional burden enforcement places on them in terms of time and staffing requirements, as well as the potential for conflict.
Tags: Burden, California, Communities, Enforcement, Proof, Public venues, Retailers, Rules, Staffing, Time, Vaccination
Santa Monica Daily Press (October 12)
The most populous state in the U.S. now has “the lowest per capita rate of new coronavirus cases.” Still, California just topped 70,000 cumulative COVID deaths. This is “the most in the nation, surpassing Texas by about 3,000 and Florida by about 13,000, although California’s per capita fatality rate of 177 per 100,000 people ranks in the bottom third for the U.S.”
Tags: California, Cases, Coronavirus, Covid, Deaths, Fatality rate, Florida, Populous, Texas, U.S.