Welcome back, my friends, to December and the holiday season! As is our tradition here at Policy Issues, we set aside our typical insurance analysis for a moment of fun and frivolity, as we acknowledge the foibles of our favorite business. So, don your kerchief or cap, grab a cup of eggnog or hot chocolate, play your favorite holiday music and settle back for a relaxing review of this year's best insurance reading.

Freakosurance. So you think you understand the wheels that drive our world, do you bunky? Thanks to common sense and long study, you're convinced that you've got this insurance thing all figured out, O Designation-Bearing One? If so, then prepare to climb down from that pedestal and eat some humble pie after reading this fascinating collaboration between a young-yet-brilliant actuary and his reporter acquaintance. Together they deliver some often-surprising insights about many of the “facts” upon which our industry's rating tables rest.

If we believe the authors, nearly every sacred predictive cow we currently possess is better suited for the dinner table than the actuarial table. Who could have known that correlating sumo wrestling statistics with the revenue of Chicago crack dealers would render more accurate hurricane predictions than the current practice of analyzing Weather Channel video?