NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Adrian Ma.

And I'm Patty Hirsch. On our listener questions segment this week, we got a great question about

why the cost of insurance is outpacing the rate of inflation.

And one thing that our inimitable hosts Darien Woods and Jeff Guo touched on very briefly

was the issue of reinsurance.

Right, so insurance for insurance companies. And this market is already like super... insurance.

And this market is already super tight.

There's not enough capital to go around.

And so the costs, they're going up again.

Last year, they spiked as high as 50%.

That was kind of strange. It was like Jeff and

Darian were here in the room for a second. They're stealing from our own

show, eating our own cooking. I don't think they'll mind. And that 50%

spike that Jeff mentioned in reinsurance rates makes sense, right? Because insurance

companies talking home insurers, car insurers, they're jacking up their premiums.

They're taking on a lot more risk these days, so naturally the rates to ensure their own business are going up too.

Yeah, but here's the thing, While insurance companies clearly are having a tough time, right?

I mean they're pulling coverage from certain states and some cases they're going out of business altogether,

reinsurance companies are not.

In fact, somehow

reinsurance companies seem to be making out like bandits.

2023 was a record year for reinsurance.

...