Death Bonds: Watch Big Banks Make a Killing (Literally)

You'd think some profiteering schemes are too sick even for Wall Street. But think again.

Wall Street is hoping that health care reform fails so not only will insurance company profits and salaries rise but big banks can get in on the business. Goldman Sachs and other bailed out banks are putting big bucks into death bonds. When their last sub-prime mortgage scam went bust, we lost our houses. This time, we'll lose our lives.

If insurance companies get their way and the quality of American health care continues to decline, the value of "death bonds" --- life insurance policies bought from the sick and elderly that increase in value the sooner the policyholders die --- will skyrocket. It's not sick enough that private health insurance CEOs are making millions by putting profits before patients, cutting care and denying claims left and right. Now Wall Street wants in on the scam.

Check out this video where I take to Wall Street to ask executives and average folks what they think about this latest gruesome scheme from the big banks.

And please sign the petition to tell Goldman Sachs to stop selling death bonds. Goldman Sachs took $10 billion of our taxpayer money in bailouts and paid out $11 billion dollars in bonuses just a few months later. And now they're using our taxpayer money to bet that more Americans will die. This is the kind of raw, sick profiteering that we must put an end to.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said in a speech on September 9, 2009: "As an industry, we need to do a better job of understanding when incentives begin to work against the public interest rather than for it and take action to redress the balance." If selling death bonds and betting on a bigger profit the more Americans die isn't against the public interest, I don't know what is.

Please join me in telling Goldman Sachs: Death to Death Bonds! And spread the word about this unconscionably evil scheme.

http://www.nodeathbonds.com/

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Comments

[kidolympic]

I don't understand how this can kill us between 3 & ll?

[steppenwolfsayshi]

It won't unless I'm totally missing something. But I guess it could make people lose their life insurance policy if there's a stock market crash, since the death bonds are bundled and rated like mortgages.

[unionave]

These death bonds are also called Viaticals and if you are looking for a bottom-less hole to dump your money into that is just the place to do it . Very few small investors ever see their investment money again once they dump it one of those holes . The game is , you place a bet that an insured person that has been diagnosed with a terminal illness will die . If you own shares in a public company you can always check on the health of the company . NOT so with these death bonds . Once your money is in that hole it's total darkness . NO information on the health of your investment is available and surprise surprise the insured person was paying premiums which now that you own the policy you must pay or lose your investment . And if it is a very large policy the premiums are very large . If you are patriotic open a U.S. treasury account where it is a zero gamble and reduce the national debt at the same time . Americans used to support their country but along the way were brain-washed by Wall Street inventions . Now their country must borrow from else-where .

[Scarborian]

Isn't regular life insurance also betting on life and death? The insurance company is betting that I'll live a long and prosperous life so they won't have to pay up and they can keep all the payments I made. I'm the one taking out the policy in case I die before I can pay all the premiums. Essentially, if I die, I win!

[ReedYoung]

Love the background music, but I can't say much else about the video or the article, because of the details (not) provided about the "death bonds" themselves. Hopefully nodeathbonds.com offers a little more of the basic information? But even if it is, some more should be right here in the introductory article.

[JOHNJM]

Are you kidding me? Why are you making such a big deal over this? There is plenty of other things to point a finger at Wall Street for, but this is not one of them. Such transactions allow the sick and or elderly to enjoy their life insurance BEFORE they die. What is wrong with this? No one is forcing anyone to sell their insurance for a discount, they choose to! If I was 90 years old and someone came to me offering .80 cents to the $1.00 on my linsurance policy, I might agree to do so! Maybe one of my grandkids needed money for college! Maybe I would like to take my family on a trip! Maybe I need money to pay off some unforseen debt!

Please, Death Bonds? Give me a break.... How about personal responsibi­lity/choic­e? Go ahead and attack the current state of healthcare, but don't paint these transactions as "death bonds".