BEATNUT

Thank you James! Yes, i'm guilty of Missing in Action. Just recovering from some back surgery which laid me up for the better part of 5 weeks. But i'm on the mend now and getting my strength back.

They may be a very BIG entity, but that's because they are spread all over the place and Life Insurance, Disability Insurance and Health Insurance isn't their big forte. In fact they don't even rank in the Top Twenty Life & Health Insurance companies in the United States. My point being is that they don't represent the entire insurance industry, that's all. Most of your damage was done by companies that make loans like AIG and other Investment companies. These top 20 are TRUE insurance companies and have maintained their strong rankings throghout this economic crisis. This is your Insurance Industry right here... TOP TWENTY U.S. LIFE/HEALTH INSURANCE GROUPS AND COMPANIES BY REVENUES, 2007 ($ millions) 1 MetLife (revenue) $46,983 - (assets) $481,645 2 Prudential Financial - 31,708 - 417,776 3 New York Life Insurance 28,051 153,952 4 TIAA-CREF 25,917 399,161 5 MassMutual Life Insurance 22,799 138,365 6 Northwestern Mutual 19,221 133,057 7 AFLAC 14,363 56,361 8 UnumProvident 10,437 51,867 9 Guardian Life of America 9,377 36,880 10 Principal Financial 9,010 127,035 11 Assurant 7,498 25,366 12 Thrivent Financial for Lutherans 6,190 54,932 13 Lincoln National 5,488 124,788 14 Pacific Life 4,840 86,977 15 Conseco 4,327 31,557 16 Western & Southern Financial 4,314 29,021 17 Jefferson-Pilot 4,220 36,078 18 Mutual of Omaha Insurance 4,051 16,441 19 Torchmark 3,126 14,769 20 Unitrin 3,048 9,198

Man am I stupid. After all these years I never knew Eric didn't write Hungry Eyes.

Eric, I agree with you on almost everything. The ONLY thing is that the Insurance industry is as strong as ever. It's the Investment Banks that went under. When you say Insurance industry I see Prudential, Guardian, Hancock, Mass Mutual, Northwest Mutual, Principal Financial, etc...their ratings have either gone up or at last stayed the same. In fact one German insurance company called Allianz Life recently was upgraded by Standard and Poors to a Double AA, and is ranked 19 in the Forbes 500 International companies.

One of the most significant days of my life. Watching the guys get out of the cab and walk right in through the doors as I waited on the VIP line for the meet and greet. I think i was number four or five on line with my wife. I immediately met this fellow Tom and we wound up hanging with him and another couple all night. Hi Tom if you're out there!! Also I found out Diane gave me and my wife Play On Buttons while we were on line. (I was at the Sunday show) Anyway, I was very intimidated when Eric and Wally walked by, and all I could think of to say was "Hi Eric, it's great to see you" and he replied, "it's great to see you too!" Then I had my Fresh album out in pristine condition, Jim got out of the cab and walked right to it and said "May I"? Sure I said, and Dave did almost the same exact thing for me. When we got it Eric and Wally signed my album for me and I had pictures taken with them. I remember once during the sound check me and my wife were just sitting on one of the chairs on the floor and Eric looked right at us and said "does that sound good over there by you guys?" We said sure...sounds great! Funny how my wife didn't want to go at first and now all she does is ask "Are the Raspberries coming around soon"? I just keep saying, hang in there, all we can do is hope. But that is one night I will never forget for the rest of my life.

What's funny is when they voted against the bailout plan the market dropped 777 points, then they approve it and it drops 800...go figure.

Are you sure it wasn't "Lionel Twain" (Truman Capote's character in the great comedy "Murder By Death") that you slept with?

You slept with Lionel Richie? I once slept with Lionel Trains.

So sorry Holls. I certainly know your pain and the feeling of losing a pal and their unconditional love. My most sincerest condolences to you on your loss.

Hey Paulie, did you get this email to? I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a 'We Deserve It Dividend.' To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.. So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00. My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend. Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a tax rate of 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam. But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $595,000.00. What would you do with $ 297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family? Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved. Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads Put away money for college - it'll be there Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs. Buy a new car - create jobs Invest in the market - capital drives growth Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces. If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( 'vote buy' ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President. If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+! As for AIG - liquidate it. Sell off its parts. Let American General go back to being American General. Sell off the real estate. Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up. Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't. Sure it's a crazy idea that can 'never work.' But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party! How do you spell 'Economic Boom?' I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC . And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

There will be a bailout plan and it will be passed, as long as the taxpayers (you and me) don't have to foot the bill for the assholes on Wall St. Have you see their retirement packages? It's 20, 30, 40 million. Do you really think they give a crap if you have a retirement? Try taking it away from them and put them on a level playing field. They sure as hell don't want to pay for the bailout either.

I won't read or look at anything that lying waste says or does. Maybe he should try a bath.

As someone in the Finance world i'm glad the Bailout failed in the legislation. Does anyone realize what that does to us, the Taxpayers? Let the greedy CEOs of these giant companies fall on their fat asses. At least now we will have a better understanding of what the market is really doing instead of everyone fudging the numbers and getting fat off the people. This a now a 'true barometer' of where we stand fiscally. A bailout will be run by the Government until that time when these companies can buy the Government out. So we will save some money with the bailout but the money will be a wash once we pay for their errors. No one paid attention to IndyMac which pretty much started all this. Basically all these mortgage companies were guilty of underwriting Bad Loans to people who would get hundreds of thousands of dollars from their equity, but had no means of paying it back. All this money injected into the economy made it soar and things were good. But whatever goes up must come down, and that's what happened. Once it came time to pay the piper the people who took out these loans couldn't afford them once their money was gone. So now thousands upon thousands of these people are in foreclosure. Third party lenders no longer want to give us money. So inflation happens because no one is pumping money into the economy, no one can afford their mortgage payments, credit cards have high interest rates of up to 27%- 30% and people can't even make their minimum payments. The price of gas is up so high people aren't going on vacations and pumping money into tourism, which accounts for millions of dollars of the economy. It's a mess. Just thought you might like to know i'm not all just good looks!

Here's the link...he died from Lung Cancer. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26913988/?GT1=43001

Just heard that Paul Newman has passed. No details yet.