Not Enough Bullets

Just when you thought that the parasites on Wall Street could not come up with a more repulsive way for them to generate commissions, they have created securitization of dead peasant insurance:

The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds......

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Either way, Wall Street would profit by pocketing sizable fees for creating the bonds, reselling them and subsequently trading them........

Paul Volker was once quoted as saying something like the only financial innovation that has benefited society in the past few decades was the ATM machine.

He's right.

Financial "innovations" should be treated like the FDA treats (or used to treat, before they started taking pharma money for their tests) drugs. It does not hit the market until proven safe and effective.