Cavalcade of Risk #62—the Wall Street Wipeout Edition

[Close your eyes and picture dollar bills going down the drain--sorry, actual picture wouldn't load. I tried to find a picture of money disappearing into a black hole, but none existed]

First some fun, because we’ve all been inundated with the Wall Street bailout mess—between that and the wall-to-wall debate commentary on TV, I’m about ready to scream and throw my set into the street (looking both ways for pedestrians and cars first, and donning my hard hat, gloves, and safety goggles). I’m not upset about the bailout mess and debates themselves, just sick and tired of HEARING about it on every bleeping channel!

From the Levity Dept: A limerick and haiku about Wall Street Woes. Leave it to Mad Kane to find humor in disaster--she's mad, you know.

Now for a funny story my husband wrote about risk, safety, and a detoured trip to a gun range: Paging Wyatt Earp.

From Living Almost Large and the “I Avoid Risk Aversion” Dept: Healthcare Really Sucks n the U.S. No real lesson to be learned here, except that for some people, insurance is supposed to take the place of awareness and personal responsibility.

Speaking of self-risk assessment and prevention, here are a couple of book recommendations from Hubby:

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why

Okay, now I’ll ease you into the more serious aspects of risk, starting with…

Insurance Risk
Jim is testing the top 5 auto insurance myths over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Debt Freedom Fighter has 3 things you should know about your life insurance policy.

Jay Norris of Colorado Health Insurance Insider sends an article about the cost of individual health insurance in Colorado. I got curious about my own health insurance, and asked my doctor’s billing office to prepare a comparison between what I spend with insurance, and what my cash outlay would be for the same items—the response was shocking: “the most expensive items are out-of-office lab work, and every thing else is $20 or lower.” If Hubby was eligible for an HSA plan, we’d switch tomorrow. The only reason we have insurance at all is out of fear of needing surgery, hospitalization, and/or chemotherapy.

Political Risk—a new heading, and no mention whatsoever of Sarah Palin or Obama

Hank Stern explains how politics intrudes on the insurance/risk world, especially how it affects the presidential candidates, with this story.

Health Risk
Jason at Healthcare Economist has evidence that women are the stronger sex when it comes to mortality and the death of a spouse.

Good news for folks with a sweet tooth: Dr. Steven Warren, blogging at the Celestial Chocolates blog, reports that a bit of chocolate in one's diet can cut the risk of heart attack almost in half. This is unless you’re allergic to chocolate, like I am…:(

Now we all need put on our hard hats, safety goggles, gloves, and be in a well-padded chair, have a beer or two standing by (or a bottle of whiskey, depending on your portfolio), and maybe some Prozac (elbow pads optional)…here it comes. Don't sat I didn't warn you:

Financial Risk
In Tallahassee Real Estate’s blog, Joe Manausa chronicles in detail that we’re bailing out America and not just the banks.

FIRE Finance tells us how to protect our assets in a financial crisis.

About the Wall St. Bailout fiasco, Uncommon Cents says this is when your risk tolerance is really defined.

Lazy Man and Money tells us of his recent forays into alternative income streams. I know this sort of stuff wouldn’t normally make it into a carnival, but I included it because these times highlight the strong possibilities of employment risk and loss of salary or wage income. These days, we all need to be on the lookout for our own alternative means of making money—especially those independent of a company or the government.

Money Answer Guy asks what advice you would give towards insuring loans.

My Wealth Builder warns that even money market funds have downside risks. Stock market chickens, take note!

Mortgage Law Network reveals that banks get to hide losses a little while longer thanks to the bailout law, adding “Banks have a green light to use more guess work in their accounting which will make their financials more opaque in the future.”

Nancy Germond at AllBusiness.com—Risk Management for the 21st Century shows how the AIG bailout offers many lessons in risk management. I still can't believe the execs there went out and partied on bailout money after the bailout took effect! So when's MY party? Oh, wait--I have to be bailed out first. Update: it gets worse.

Over at the Economist's View blog, Mark Thoma posits that the breakdowns of Fannie and Freddie was due in large part to increased risk-taking. I say it goes back even further than that—all the way back to the Community Reinvestment Act and its subsequent tweaks along the way.

The folks at A Different View on Politics don't believe that the recent bailouts will decrease the risk of global economic woes.

The Legal Literacy blog, while writing about Wall Street's recent troubles, reports on increased interest in business governance, risk and compliance.

Huxbux, blogging at The Thought Refuse, examines risk management and federal regulation of investment firms. Heavy reading, but well worth it.

I tried to warn you, didn’t I? Now for the much softer finale…

Risk Assessment—Just Whose Job is It?

Risk Publishing Online's David Gamble, looking at how companies function, wonders just whose responsibility it is to actually assess risk.

I keep asking my over-worked hubby in the Navy OSHA safety office just whose job it is to PREVENT risk—the navy seems to think it’s his, when it’s EVERYBODY’S. Risk awareness by itself just doesn’t seem to be enough, when laziness is the real culprit in his world.

Join us next time when John Cogan at Regulating Health Insurance gets to serve up the goodies!