The day that Hurricane Andrew touched down in Florida in 1992, J.W. Greenberg—executive vice president of the finance and insurance giant American International Group, or AIG—sent a memo around to company staff. “This is an opportunity,” he wrote , “to get price increases now. We must be the first, and it begins by establishing the psychology with our own people. Please get it moving today.” Standard mainstream media accounts of California’s insurance market warn of a virtually existential “