You'll Be Dead. What Do You Care?

[lame54]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/03/mccain-advisorlobbyist-pushed-the-most-macabre-investment-schemes-ever-devised-by-wall-street-known-as-death-bonds/

McCain’s campaign is already distancing itself from some of Gramm’s other work for UBS: his involvement in attempts to sell financial products known as “death bonds,” which BusinessWeek described last summer as one of “the most macabre investment scheme ever devised by Wall Street.” Not long after joining UBS, the Houston Chronicle reported, Gramm helped lobby Texas officials, including Gov. Rick Perry, to sign on to a UBS proposal in which revenue would be generated for a state teachers’ retirement fund by selling bonds, whose proceeds would in turn be used to buy annuities and life-insurance policies on retired teachers. UBS would advance money to the retirement fund, then repay itself, compensate bondholders and pocket profits when insurance companies paid off on retirees who died...