Another doyen of the share market fell from grace this week. QBE Limited flagged substantially lower earnings and blamed low prevailing interest rates in the US as the cause. Given that low interest rates have prevailed in the US for the last 2.5 years, it is strange that only now is it having an effect. In our view, both of our large insurers (QBE and IAG) fail to sensibly invest their free insurance capital or reserves to build shareholder wealth. They have consistently relied on capital raisings and acquisitions to grow. For these reasons this is not a sector we like, although we suspect the proverbial dead cat bounce will occur in their stock prices. Value investors will not lead the charge, though.