This American Life: Loopholes

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/473/loopholes

473: Loopholes

AUG 24, 2012

Only the clever need apply. This week, stories of people acting on a technicality in the face of some of life's toughest regulators: financial regulators, parents and God.

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• PROLOGUE

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  Ira talks with UC Davis Professor Kathy Stuart about a macabre trend that dates back to 17th and 18th century Europe. It seems that in order to avoid eternal damnation for the sin of committing suicide, a number of people began committing murder for the express purpose of turning themselves in, confessing their sins to a priest in order to be blessed and forgiven before being executed. (9 minutes)death • religion

• ACT ONE

  Death Takes a Policy.

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  An estate attorney in Rhode Island discovers the investor's Holy Grail: a financial scheme that guarantees only reward and no risk. All upside with no downside. The only catch? You have to die in order to get the money. But there's a loophole! Alex Blumberg from Planet Money and Jake Bernstein from ProPublica tell the story of how the attorney, Joseph Caramadre, figured out how to get someone else to die instead.

  For a more detailed version of this story plus graphics, documents, video excerpts of the depositions, and a way for you to weigh in on whether it's acceptable to profit from the death of strangers, visit ProPublica's website.death • economics • legal system

  • Alex Blumberg

  SONG: "SIGN IT ON THE DOTTED LINE", CARAVAN