invisible hard market

A situation in the insurance industry where the market is hardening, but the traditional benefits of a hard market have not yet realized. Term first used in 2009 by Brian Duperreault, of Marsh & McLennan Companies, to describe events in the property/casualty marketplace. Normally when supply has gone down more quickly than demand, this would allow an increase in prices. However, a contracting economy can cause exposures to disappear, thus hiding the bottom-line benefits of rising prices.