Retirement Savings in the Dark
For most of the 20th century, there was a clear wall between working people’s pension funds and the riskier corners of financial markets. This wasn’t accidental—it was the law.
Well, at least two of its luminaries are doing that, tongue in cheek (no pun intended),according to a report from Vienna's
Die Presse(in German). Larry Flynt of Hustler and Joe Francis of the firm "Girls Go Wild" want Congress to provide the industry with a cool $5 billion. In an interview with CNN, Flynt promises a kind of hedonic multiplier effect in return, something even many academic economists who enthuse about 'happiness economics' have been so far reluctant to endorse in the present crisis: "It is time for Congress to reinvigorate America's sexual appetite, and the only way to do that is by supporting the pornography industry: and there's no time to lose!" Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "stimulus package."