Being free of hurricanes the last several years has helped [the insurance industry] but other things have negatively impacted capital positions of companies, like the stock market and underwriting losses.

A Category 5 will cause substantial damage if it hits a populated area. But as far as individual companies mitigating their catastrophic risk, they have come a long way since Andrew.

Capital is the essential raw material used in producing insurance products. The UK industry is lithe, lean and dynamic. If the present system lives on, this could dump a brick in a rucksack on its back.

Consumers are clearly being impacted by the three hurricanes, ... That, combined with natural gas and gasoline prices, is having an effect. I think $3 a gallon gasoline is the tipping point to a consumer that is under siege. But this number is really no great surprise.

The shortage of selling communities, coupled with some softening of demand in a number of markets, negatively impacted our contract results. It appears we may be entering a period of more moderate home price increases, more typical of the past decade than the past two years.

Along with most other participants in the financial-services sector, certain key businesses were negatively impacted by the turmoil in the global financial markets, including, in particular, our credit and relative trading activities.