There are only so many life policies in any year to re-sell that were not originally written for that purpose. Securitization is a beast with a voracious appetite. Short-term gains are too sweet for many to ignore. As with sub-prime mortgages, two lines of reasoning are for employed for engaging in presently profitable but long-term possibly ruinous practices: 1) Someone else will get the revenue if we don’t. Or, the great delusion, 2) This time is different.

Will everybody, after readying this post, please go to the comments section and look for Steve Leimberg, February 11, 2010 at 6:36 pm. While the editor saw an opportunity to poke fun at Sarah Palin, Mr. Leimberg brought up facts based on years of research and study and firsthand experience testifying and witnessing others testify on this issue. Steve Leimberg’s professional credentials are without question and in that rare air with few others.

When you read his reply you will see a clever and funny and humorous editor getting totally obliterated by a carpet-bombing of facts showered down on him. It was thorough. The editor will have a job after clearing himself from the rubble but you will wonder if the publisher should retain him after seemingly endless number of errors of fact. Perhaps this editor spends too much time streaming the internet for reasons other than studying the topics he editorializes. I will no longer trust anything he writes about . . . he clearly has an agenda. Both political and professional.