Buy Insurance - you never know when you don't need it.

Carl Lindner Junior ( He's 88 yrs old !) is one of the world's richest people. Forbes 2006 has him 133rd on the 400 list with a worth of US$ 2.3 Bn. (ish).

Admirers of this staunch Cincinnatti based supporter of George Bush and the Republicans will be delighted therefore that his 2 publicly traded Insurance companies (even after the hits of Katrina) have had some results to boast about at the Country Club. He helped bail out Daddy Bush of Chiquita Bananas when things went sour and they couldn't fix the elections of the President in some South American ..er..banana republic.

Core operating profits at the two publicly traded insurance companies owned by financier Carl Lindner (and run by his two sons) each grew handsomely in the last quarter .... and throughout the year.

American Financial Group Inc.'s Earnings (CEO Carl H Lindner lll) per share (EPS) rose to 85 cents per sharein Q4 ( US$ 3.14 for the year up 29 %), and their subsidiary ( US$ 3.14 for the year up 29 %) , 82 percent owned Great American Financial Resources Inc., showed EPS of 37 cents for Q4 a rsie of 111% for the Quarter and 119% for the full year.

American Financial's stock (NYSE: AFG) closed at $35.79 Monday (up from US$26 Feb13th 2006), while Great American (NYSE: GFR) closed at $21.76.(up from US 19.5 Feb 13th 2006)

Don't get too excited the US$ in all that time has declined from US$1.67 to US$1.96 against the pound and when Dubya illegally invaded Iraq you got one Euro for each dollar, now you get just 77 cents... so guys like Dick Cheney who went high wide and handsome they say on Eurobonds have done rather well.... they need to if they want to keep up with the Lindner family.