Nat Cat Stats Not Flat
Plus: My interview with Jake Tapper, the autopen rumor machine is humming along & how a New Jersey mayor got out of a ticket when no one else did.
Why do Gist List readers read the Gist List? Obviously, for the following insightful commentary on insurance claims. While reading my current favorite trade publication, Insurance Journal, I discovered something interesting about natural disasters and insurance coverage.
If you've been watching the news and thought, "Huh… there seems to be a lot of worldwide destruction lately," you'd be right. In the first half of 2025, we've seen a huge surge of economic losses from natural disasters—$100 billion worth of global insurance claims.
And it's not just up from last year's $71 billion—it's lapping the 21st-century average of $41 billion per first half of the year, and takes silver in the global disaster Olympics, just behind 2011's $140 billion blowout. (Thanks, Japanese Tsunami, which actually did lead to Japan getting the 2020 Olympics, which wound up taking place in 2021.) Ninety-two percent of these losses are based in the U.S., which is both heavily insured and also the site of quite a few disasters. The insurance gap was also the lowest ever recorded for the first half of the year, 38%, which means insurance is covering more of the damage.
Admittedly, my favorite thing about this article is the headline, "First-Half 2025 Insured Losses From Natural Cats Hit $100B, Driven by U.S. Events," and the fact that the industry shorthand for catastrophe is "cat." Stay tuned to the Gist List for more news on ratatat natty cats.
Welcome to the Gist List—a nerdy news roundup, things you should know, snippets from trade journals and my thoughts leading up to today’s podcast episode.
Here’s what’s on my mind:
✒️ The autopen is mightier than… whatever is happening in the House Oversight Committee.
🚀 Yemeni fighters intercept weapons meant for the Houthis.
👟 How a New Jersey Mayor got out of a ticket most other people had to pay.
💸 Businesses blame tariffs for bankruptcies they may have caused themselves.🔒
🎁 Allegedly “spicy” note, reportedly from Trump, allegedly to Epstein.
The Gist List
Biden Aides Look to Fifth Amendment as Autopen Probe Widens (Washington Post)
The investigation of whether or not Biden's staff secretly wielded an autopen during his presidency (and what it says about his mental fitness) is causing former staffers to "look" to the Fifth Amendment, whatever that means. (Translation for non-lawyers: it's the same as invoking the Fifth; they're just workshopping the phrasing.) Refusing to testify doesn't prove guilt, but like they say, "in the court of public perception…jurors are frequently drunk."
If you read Jed Rubenfeld's article in The Free Press the other day, he lays it out pretty clearly: using an autopen signature is as legally valid as using DocuSign. Sure, the question still exists about whether Biden was mentally fit, but government doesn't need to grind to a halt just because the president's arthritis (or chronic venous insufficiency) is acting up again. So far, all the House Oversight Committee is cranking up the smoke machine over this pen machine.
Comer was the same committee head who investigated Hunter Biden, a figure who engaged in legitimately unethical acts, as well as illegal ones, yet failed to significantly connect those facts to the office of the president. Maybe he'll have more luck operating through the vector of a mechanical pen than a substance-abusing party boy ne'er-do-well.
Yemen Fighters Allied to Exiled Government Claim Seizure of Tons of Iranian-Supplied Houthi Weapons (AP)
It's a recursion of Persian regional incursion. Yemen's National Resistance Force intercepted 750 tons of missiles and weapons allegedly supplied by Iran. The weapons were reportedly made by a company linked to Iran's Ministry of Defense, which is under U.S. sanctions. Couple this with revelations that Iran is once more arming Hezbollah, it paints a picture of Iran once more arming the so-called "axis of resistance." You can punch 'em in the nose with a flurry of GBU-57s, but you can't keep a homicidal Ayatollah down.
Step by Step, How a Former Montclair Mayor Beat Sidewalk Ticket (Montclair Local)
New Jersey Teacher's Union pooh-bah Sean Spiller is back in the news, and this time it's not quixotic runs for the Governor's mansion, it's municipal nonfeasance regarding his own mansion. Last time Spiller made the Gist List (and enjoyed the concomitant Gist List bump), it was over his failed ticket for New Jersey Governor in which his union spent $545 per vote on his way to a fifth-place finish. This time it is for his fine-avoiding, consequence-evading failure to pay a ticket to fix a sidewalk.
Spiller was cited in July 2023 for failing to replace a cracked sidewalk while he was serving as mayor of Montclair. Your average Montclairian (Monclaireno? Montclavian?) is fined or ordered to fully replace sidewalks, while Spiller had his ticket tossed due to a loophole in the town ordinance—a loophole so glaring that this incident helped prompt the very rewrite of the law.
In court, prosecutors dropped the case citing "sufficient remediation" and a "lack of discovery," though contractors later pointed out that his fix appeared to be a repair the town explicitly says is not acceptable, a "grind down."
Not to be ground down by local sidewalk specifics is the Montclair Local, "Watching Watchung Plaza like a Hawk since 2017.” It's a community with an unusually high number of residents who work for the media, so if you try to avoid fixing your sidewalk, there might be a full-blown investigation in the local paper.
Blame It on Tariffs: CEOs Roll Out New Excuse for Bankruptcies (Bloomberg)🔒
Since "Liberation Day," when President Donald Trump took office, at least 10 large companies filed for bankruptcy citing tariffs. One problem: It's too early for new tariffs to have made a material impact, especially with strong consumer spending and low unemployment. Tariffs are now becoming the "Thanks, Obama" of the age.
While tariffs are convenient and easy to explain to the layman, most of these companies have a multitude of other problems more related to the current market, global supply chains and their ability to pivot their business models in response to consumer trends. The Decor retailer At Home, for example, is still reeling from Covid-era supply problems and consumers wanting to spend more on travel than decorating their houses. Marelli Holdings, an auto part supplier, had problems before the tariffs were announced and is trying to navigate the mass electrification and automation of the industry.
And while you may have heard that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert got cancelled over the host's speaking out about the Paramount lawsuit, maybe it was really tariffs. Everything else is said to be.
Jeffrey Epstein's Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump (WSJ)
You've probably already heard about this WSJ story about a saucy letter from Trump found among Epstein's leather-bound birthday album. You've probably also heard that the president is suing over the story, as he does. What you may not have noticed, however, is how much the article hedges itself against legal action.
I'm sure the WSJ had a team of attorneys crawl all over this piece before publication to protect itself from our very litigious president. By the number of times it uses language like "alleged" or "people familiar with" or even "It isn't clear how the letter with Trump's signature was prepared" (autopen?)—by my count, around 16—you know that they are lawyering up for a battle.
Update: The original version of this newsletter said the president was only threatening to sue. In the full three seconds since publishing, news broke that he filed a libel suit against the Wall Street Journal.
Yesterday on The Show: Jake Tapper
Jake Tapper returns to dissect his book "Original Sin" and the failures of mainstream media to report on Joe Biden's decline. He traces how social pressures, cultural taboos, and partisan incentive structures are ongoing threats to the type of journalism he practices and associates with the best forms of truth-telling. Tapper says CNN still strives to flesh out the full story, but acknowledges the shrinking market for non-ideological reporting.
This newsletter was put together in collaboration with Kathleen Sykes. All mistakes belong to Mike Pesca.
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