Rolling the Dice Again by Ralph Nader

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/12-5

Published on Saturday, September 12, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Rolling the Dice Again

by Ralph Nader

The Wall Street gang is at it again! It's been one year since Wall Street's collapse and bailout took trillions from taxpayers and the sinking economy. The speculative instruments that pulled down the economy were those super-risky sub-prime mortgages, credit default swaps, collaterized debt obligations-you know-Las Vegas East, using other peoples' savings.

As if to elaborate their gigantic con job, the investment banks, guaranteed by you the taxpayers, are now packaging life insurances policies in what sane, on the ground businesses would consider deranged exotic money plays.

Here is how the New York Times described the new securitization packages emerging from such corporate welfare goliaths as Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and their eager rating agency, DBRS.

"The bankers plan to buy ‘life settlements,' life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash--...depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to ‘securitize' these policies...by packaging hundred or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell these bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.

"The earlier the policy holder dies, the bigger the return-though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money."

..more..

"The earlier the policy holder dies, the bigger the return-though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money."

:hi:

That industry pushed 5x increase in mandated premiums for older people will make ins. unaffordable for most of the older working class even with subsidies. I bet they make a bundle when working class policy holders about 50-64 years old die from lack of access to care.

is lower than many other countries?


edit to add: :hi:

I am a big Obama fan but my politics are of the left!

:shrug:

When your only reason to exist, is to make obscene piles of cash, any scam will do:) Wall Street is just doing what it always does.:(

They keep trying to come up with a new scam and now it's packaged life insurance policies. When the locusts completely ruin another segment of society and move on, will there be anything left for them to infest?

if it didn't kill it's host

the rec number is dropping

how they love to hate the messenger!

everything is Nader's fault?

Thanks for George W. Bush, dickhead.

Yep, thanks a lot Ralphie boy. How much cash did the greenies take from Bushco in 2000? Nader can fuck off.

nor accept that - including on certain issues the new President & Bill Clinton, there's not a dimes worth of difference between the parties' policies.

Do you really think a different president would have clamped down on this before it became a crisis?

in 2000. Don't blame Nader for the DEM party being so FUCKED UP and RIGHT WING.

to the "traitors" within their own party. An estimated 10-11 million Democrats voted for Bush in the 2000 election. Enough to give Gore, not only the Presidency, but a mandate.

And yes, more Democrats voted for Bush than Nader's total votes in Florida.

There are tons of people that are registered Democrats who have very conservative views. Them voting for Bush is simply a statement of their views.

There are tons of people that are registered Democrats who have very conservative views. Them voting for Bush is simply a statement of their views.

This started with Reagan, then enhanced during Clinton. But thanks for the revisionist history. Nader was one of the voices crying in the wind during the Clinton admins deregulation of markets.

Bill Clinton has actually claimed (I'm too lazy too look it up), that deregulation has nothing to do with our current meltdown.

Clean your own house, babeee! It must feel pretty good to those Dems now (and who most likely voted for Obama) to be totally left off the hook.

In fact, I bet there's a whole hell of a lot of Democratic Bush voters that are damn happy they've escaped the heat from the lynch Nader brigade.

and has put tough regulations in place to ensure the taxpayers will never, ever again have to bail them out for their risky investments. Oh wait...

Nothing ever happened before Idiot Frat Boy's coup. Nader made all of this possible. Yadda, yadda, yadda...
:crazy:
:kick: & R