We shall mount an expedition to glean what we can of their manners and customs.
From CityAM, January 25:
Investing in the weather? Why catastrophe bonds are taking off in the City
The catastrophe bond market may sound like some kind of risky punt against the wind, but betting on the weather can prove a sound investment, writes Claude Brown
Life, it is often said, has two certainties, though the growing frequency of extreme weather events perhaps suggests a third could soon be added. From Florida to New Zealand, swathes of the planet are now battered by hurricanes and earthquakes with seemingly greater frequency. Only last year, for instance, Hurricane Ian swept across North America, causing an estimated $35bn-$55bn of damage across Florida, the Carolinas and Cuba.
It might seem strange, then, that catastrophe bonds, which are usually issued by insurers in regions at risk of extreme weather, are presently proving so popular in the Square Mile. After all, where cat bonds offer healthy returns whilst skies are clear, holders are obliged to pay out should a specified catastrophe hit a specified region.
And yet, despite the threat of extreme weather, the cat bond market has grown to a record $4bn, offering some of the best returns for hedge funds and with an increasing number of financial institutions holding onto the products as distinct portfolios....
....MUCH MORE
If interested see also last week's "Hedge Funds Rake in Huge Profits Betting on Catastrophe Risk" and the very related, Catastrophe Losses and Climate: "Global Disaster Losses: 1990-2023.
Now, consulting our handy Baedeker, we go in search of their haunts:
"The Lost World of the London Coffeehouse"
...Here are the main establishments frequented by the stockjobbers and other denizens...
There is so much business that has the coffee houses back in the mists
of their early history, Lloyd's and The Jerusalem for the maritime
crowd, Jonathan's and Garraway's for the stockjobbers. Unfortunately the
instant piece doesn't go into much detail, I may have to put a post
together. For now here's Jonathan Swift on the exchange crowd:
A savage race, by shipwrecks fed,
Lie waiting for the foundered skiffs,
And strips the bodies of the dead."
Harsh.
(He lost money in the South Sea bubble)
[Garraway's is #14 on the map above, fronting on Exchange Alley]
