Monday, August 16, 2010

Alien insurance?

We have this morning two apparently disparate items for your consideration.

First up, from FoIB Jeff M, this rather startling video documenting the cost of "the undocumented:"



That's a lot of money spent on health care (not to mention attorneys' fees) for folks who shouldn't have even been here in the first place.

Second, via Ace of Spades, is this rather disturbing development regarding AIG and sharia:

"The financial jihad has now achieved its greatest coup so far: It has co-opted the U.S. government as a partner. In fact, if you would like to see a contributor to the jihad, have a look in the mirror."

As with GM and Chrysler, we taxpayers own insurance behemoth AIG. In addition to bailing them out, we're also complicit in their new "investment" strategy: sharia law.

Under Islamic sharia law, one is forbidden to charge (or pay) interest. But AIG is now operating under "SCF" (sharia-compliant finance), so at least some of its "investments" will now fall under that rubric. This means, for example, that it can no longer invest in companies that deal in, for example, pork, or alcohol, or even those which support our own armed forces.

Inasmuch as AIG needs to rebuild its capital base, this presents a problem:

Insurance companies need investments for several reasons: first, because they need to maintain and grow their financial assets in order to be able to pay future claims. They also need to be able to provide their policyholders who own cash-value policies (e.g. whole and universal life) with interest, as they are contractually bound to do. Tying their hands in this fashion makes it well nigh impossible to accomplish either goal.

Talk about hope and change.
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