The Carnage Account Bonus Material

The Wall Street Practice of Betting On How Long Someone Lives is Real

I was at Lehman Brothers in a new product meeting when I learned about Life Settlements. I had heard about an investment product called Viaticals that were for terminally ill patients. Viatacals were used during the AIDS crisis where doomed patients sold their policy and investors had a short period to wait for collection.

This newer product, Life Settlements, incorporated healthy people, and presented an even stranger way to bet against human life. Just like High Yield Bonds were labeled Junk Bonds, bankers were attempting to package a bunch of life insurance policies into Life Settlement Securities that was quietly being tagged as Death Bonds. Instead of “credit risk” or “interest rate risk” or “prepayment risk” we would now evaluate “longevity risk."

 

HeroinUS Soldiers Sometimes Guard Heroin Fields in Afghanistan: Not Destroy Them

Clay Harbor found himself in the middle of a nasty battle in the poppy fields of Afghanistan. There have absolutely been instances where US soldiers are involved with protecting poppy fields.

By keeping the fields safe, the American soldiers were trying to defend the only viable income stream the Afghan farmers had. This was not purely an altruistic maneuver. The already fragile Afghan situation is tough enough to manage without a civil war. The US had tried various strategies to combat the growing drug problem. At the time of this writing, Afghanistan represents an estimated 90% of the world’s heroin production.

 

MercenariesMercenary Armies paid by the US?

I remember learning about the Hessians in my elementary school history class. The Hessians were 30,000 German auxiliaries contracted for military service to fight the American Revolutionary War for the British cause. They represented a quarter of Britain’s army. To the best of my knowledge, that was the last of any significant pay-to-fight soldiers on American soil.

However, I was floored when I discovered that not only is the US is paying “private military contractors” but they were being trained in the US. Also suprising, was that the practice had been going on for while. What wasn’t a shock was that the system had been abused and the damage was catastophic. I was amazed reading about Blackwater and other private military contractors.

 

The RestThe Oquago Fianacial trading floor, The Navy SEALS, The Desperados Arena and Capoeira

The most impressive trading floor I ever saw was the UBS trading floor in Stamford, Connecticut. I’ve worked at several banks in my twenty-year Wall Street career but various departments were spread out over different floors, like a department store. UBS was not only a big company, but also, the majority of departments interacted in one big playground. Rory Cage created the most successful hedge fund and this monster trading floor is what Rory aspired to create. He loved looking out of his office and seeing this football field of traders all working for him.

 

The Brooklyn Nets were very gracious and gave me access to the arena for research. I was fascinated by a cryo thereapy chamber. Rory Cage wanted a winning team and spared no expense which included a KryoChamber. That chamber cost Rory more than money. Also included are pictures of the security booth, luxury boxes and even the team’s laundry room where Darwin stashed some bodies.