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Podcast: Planet Money
Episode:

How hurricanes became a hot investment

Category: Business
Duration: 00:30:57
Publish Date: 2025-12-05 23:54:30
Description:

A few years ago, the Jamaican government started making an unusual financial bet. It went to investors around the world asking if they'd like to wager on the chances a major hurricane would hit the island in the next couple of years. 

In finance terms, these kinds of wagers are called "catastrophe bonds." They're a way to get investors to share the risk of a major disaster, whether that's a Japanese earthquake, a California wildfire, or a Jamaican hurricane. 

This market for catastrophe has gotten really hot lately. And it’s changing the way that insurance works for all of us. 

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This episode was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Marianne McCune. It was engineered by Jimmy Keeley and Kwesi Lee. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez and Vito Emanuel. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

Music: Universal Music Production - “Lagos to London,” “Sleazy Does It,” “The Sundown Set.”

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