Capital markets participants around the world breathed a sigh of relief when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s calls for lower interest rates won’t lead the central bank to change its rate decisions. “People can be confident that we’ll continue to keep our heads down, do our work, and make our decisions based on what’s happening in the economy.” In addition, lenders and investors took note of him saying, “There are going to be regions of the country where you can’t get a mortgage.” “Rob, I realize that insurance is regulated at the state level, not the federal level. Are you hearing anything about an arrangement, like mortgages, where insurance companies have a certain dollar exposure to properties, but past that, the Federal government steps in to cover homeowner losses?” Yes, there is some chatter about that, especially if the federal government has some concessions from the insurance companies not to exit certain states. The devil’s in the details, but storm severity and monetary losses are not lessening. Homeowner’s insurance issues are not just a California problem, or a Florida problem. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by CoreLogic. Originators who leverage their Marketing Solutions as part of their customer retention practices have seen their pipelines increase by up to 4 times when compared to traditional lead generation methods. Hear an interview with Accunet’s David Wickert on taking over the family business from his father.)