Wall Street's Newest Scam:

Buying out the life insurance policies of the elderly and hoping they die soon.

Jenny Anderson of The New York Times reports on Wall Street's latest and greatest idea to make a profit:

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. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.

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.

Capitalism at its most ghoulish. Maybe. By the way, there are now over 1,000,000 homeless children in the U. S.