Less driving increasing insurer's profits
Interesting article I ran across. Seems that with the increased gasoline costs, motorists are driving less, thereby decreasing accident rates. An analyst at Lehman Brothers upgraded major personal auto insurer Progressive Corp. as an investment due to this trend. With the recent trend of insurers decreasing their rates to win business, this would be a welcome sign for them to increase profit margins. The story stated that in the 70's, when gasoline prices increased substantially, the same trend occurred.