John Major

From tackling low economic growth to addressing regional inequalities, from adapting to climate change to transforming public service performance, UK government is facing substantial and urgent challenges. But without radical reform of the centre of government, whoever wins the next election will repeat the failures of previous administrations. The next prime minister must transform No.10, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury. On Monday 11 March, The Rt Hon Sir John Major KG CH and The Rt Hon Gordon Brown spoke at the Institute for Government to launch the final report of the Commission on the Centre of Government . It sets out a plan – ambitious but deliverable – for reforming the centre of government. Over the last year the IfG’s Centre Commission has been speaking to people who have worked at the heart of government in the UK and overseas, to devolved governments, industry and civil society leaders and community leaders. Our conclusion is that the centre of government is not equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Fundamental change is needed – and it cannot wait. The first part of the event featured opening speeches from Sir John Major and Gordon Brown . This was followed by panel discussion of the core recommendations of the report. For this discussion we were delighted to be joined by: • Baroness (Louise) Casey , a Commissioner who supported the project, and a crossbench peer and former civil servant • Lord (Gus) O'Donnell , former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service • Sir Anthony Seldon , Deputy Chair of the Commission on the Centre of Government. The panel was chaired by Dr Hannah White , Director of the Institute for Government and Chair of the Commission on the Centre of Government. This event was supported by a grant from Charities Aid Foundation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the sharp rise in interest rates, the mortgage business has been hit hard nationally, especially private firms. Business just isn't as easy to come by as it was before. To survive and thrive, mortgage and real estate professionals have to take proactive action, roll up their sleeves and get back in the trenches. In this episode, co-owners of Askasrben Mortgage, Nick Zwiebel, and John Major share how to be successful in this current market. Guest Bio Nick Zwiebel is the co-owner and mortgage loan originator at Askasrben Mortgage. During his 18-plus year career in finance, Nick has gained a deep understanding of the mortgage industry and helped over 2,000 families experience their good life – homeownership. Now, Nick has taken what he has learned from his time with Fortune 500 companies, national financial institutions, and locally-owned companies to establish his venture, Aksarben Mortgage. His goal as a mortgage professional is always to educate clients on the financing options available to them and to find a loan program that fits their lifestyle. Nick offers a wide range of loans, including Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, NIFA, New Construction, Jumbo, and Investment mortgage loans. He works with first-time buyers as well as return buyers and helps clients pre-qualify for their dream house loan or refinance existing loans to provide a financial cushion. John Major is co-owner and lead mortgage advisor at Askasrben Mortgage. John has over 10 years of experience in the financial sector, including employment with large national banks and local startup ventures alike. He brings to Aksarben Mortgage a blend of deep industry knowledge and strategic thinking to educate and guide clients in one the largest, and most emotional, financial decisions they will ever make – buying a home. John's specialties include move-up and first-home buyers, new construction, second-home and investment properties, medical and dental professional loans, VA financing, and refinancing. He enjoys working in tandem with real estate agents, insurance advisors, and title companies to offer a seamless, hassle-free home-buying experience. And by employing a winning combination of cutting-edge technology, powerful communication, and custom-tailored guidance, John meets his client's unique needs. For more information, head to https://www.aksarbenmortgage.com/ .

Nobody knew how to price volatility until now. I bet you're surprised! This isn't hyperbole, Steve Mildenhall and John Major have a deep and thorough understanding of all the relevant literatures and have been part of a loosely collaborative team of academics and actuaries working out the details of a coherent, actionable theoretical foundation for pricing insurance for their entire careers. Now that they're both retired they've delivered us the tome the actuarial profession needs. Their new book: *Pricing Insurance Risk: Theory and Practice* is an absolute masterpiece. It is theoretically sound and immensely practical. Until today no financial institution could choose a sophisticated portfolio model that wasn't hiding biases or inefficiencies that had to be 'band-aid-ed' over with coarse heuristics. Very importantly how does one calculate the margin required to service the capital base when the risks vary so much? The science of managing a portfolio of incompletely diversified, highly volatile financial instruments has gained serious ground with this book. Steve Mildenhall is head of analytics at Qualrisk, an Insurance consulting firm, formerly assistant professor of actuarial science at St. John's University, and before that CEO of analytics at Aon. This is Steve's fifth appearance on this show. John Major is principal at Major analytics and the former director of actuarial research at guy carpenter. youtube: https://youtu.be/ZQHpMVH7d9s show notes: https://notunreasonable.com/?p=7694 Steve and John did a tutorial on this material and more with some technical examples you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/@ermdiner/ Here is a link to the spreadsheet used in the tutorial: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CV3sF52cjPH8mw6T4E-jOfCNDagCptRs4xBZTug8Z0A/edit?usp=sharing Here are some Not Unreasonable Podcast Episodes about related content: Samir Shah on Innovating Capital https://www.buzzsprout.com/126848/8171216 and Steve on the Macro History of insurance Part 1: https://www.buzzsprout.com/126848/8121657 And Part 2 https://www.buzzsprout.com/126848/8507268 In the show we cover: How do you think of the cost of running the capital side of insurance? 2:06 The importance of connecting the value to the value of the original customers. 5:18 What is the value of reinsurance? 7:34 The timing of Hurricane Andrew relative to the early cat models. 18:44 The history of cat models in the 60s. 21:22 What the CEO’s are disagreeing about in volatility? 33:04 What could possibly justify 50% margins in these companies? 42:59 What doesn’t make sense about the intentionality argument. 46:28 What is the market price for risk? 48:02 The difference between allocating capital vs. allocating margin. 1:01:39 What’s the right metric for determining performance of a reinsurance company? 1:08:07 The further removed you get from loss, the cheaper the capital is as a percent of capital, but the more expensive the insurances are. 1:22:59 How long did it take for these ideas to emerge? How did they evolve? 1:24:55 The key to unlocking a lower cost of capital 1:29:07 What is the required return in a regulated environment? 1:32:55 The amount of leverage you get is huge. 1:48:24 Steve’s envelope theorem and how it works. 1:53:18 What’s the insight that underlies the ability to determine bounds for spectral measures? 1:56:46 Characterizing the worst risk-adjusted expected outcome. Twitter: @davecwright Surprise, It's Insurance mailing list Linkedin Social Science of Insurance Essays <