Profiting on Death and Other Random Points

Here are a few bits of news you might find interesting:

1.  The race is on to write the script, can you guess how this movie ends (hat tip to Kristina Melomed)?

After the mortgage business imploded last year, Wall Street investment banks began searching for another big idea to make money. They think they may have found one. 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. . . . The earlier the policyholder dies, the bigger the return — though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money.

The link to the NYT story is here.  More after the break.

2.  In honor of Labor Day:  "Swiss topple U.S. as most competitive economy."  The money quote for the guy always complaining about about private business taking over the government:

The [World Economic Forum] said the U.S. economy was still extremely productive but a number of escalating weaknesses were taking its toll. Concerns were growing about the government's ability to maintain distance to the private sector . . . .

3.  Speaking of big business running governments, the Wall Street Journal reported this past Saturday that:

British oil giant BP PLC lobbied the U.K. in late 2007 over a controversial prisoner transfer agreement with Libya . . . . Revelations of the efforts Friday fed speculation by opposition politicians and victims' families that the recent release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber is entangled with oil interests.

On Tuesday the WSJ reported further that:

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who recently released the Lockerbie bomber, has a brother who is an energy-industry executive and who has worked at firms that have pitched for oil business in Libya.

But I'm just paranoid.