[LJ]

No insurance company that wants to stay in business in the U.S. will refuse to pay a claim like this.

I'm not so sure about that. The total casualty claims could exceed the $20 Billion of hurricane Andrew, and that almost broke several large companies. These companies may have to refuse to pay in order to stay in business.

Both my home owners policy and life insurance policies state they do not pay for acts of terrorism or war. If the insurance companies don't pay, I'm sure Uncle Sam will just inflate the currency and pay all the bills.

[George W. Bush]

Both my home owners policy and life insurance policies state they do not pay for acts of terrorism or war. If the insurance companies don't pay, I'm sure Uncle Sam will just inflate the currency and pay all the bills. Did you see the list of all the insurance company headquarters that were in the WTC? The short list seemed to include over a dozen, including some pretty major names. The insurance industry may reconsider whether to pay on terrorism disasters since they've now been victims. I think insurance company executives got hit hard today.

[Alberta's Child]

The most important issue for all these insurance companies is the dollar value of all other claims they must pay. Oddly enough, the fact that this has been an unusually quiet hurricane season in the U.S. will probably help them. Investment bankers often buy insurance stocks at a time like this, since the public perception of the insurance industry's financial state will generally be worse than reality.

An endless series of small claims (as in a hurricane) is usually worse than one large claim, though in this case we are talking about a $3.2-billion office complex, thousands of lives, and a sh!tload of financial chaos as well.