Immigration: No Correlation With Crime

By Kathleen Kingsbury Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008

A Los Angeles police officer leads a man suspected of kidnapping to a patrol car.

Robert Nickelserg / Getty

Despite our melting-pot roots, Americans have often been quick to blame the influx of immigrants for rising crime rates. But new research released Monday shows that immigrants in California are, in fact, far less likely than U.S.-born Californians are to commit crime. While people born abroad make up about 35% of California's adult population, they account for only about 17% of the adult prison population, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) showed. Indeed, among men ages 18 to 40 — the demographic most likely to be imprisoned — those born in the U.S. were 10 times more likely than foreign-born men to be incarcerated.
"From a public safety standpoint, there would be little reason to limit immigration," says Kristin Butcher, an economics professor at Wellesley College and one of the report's authors.
The new report even bolsters claims by some academics that increased immigration makes the United States safer. A second study, released earlier this month by Washington-based nonprofit Immigration Policy Center, found that on the national level, U.S.-born men ages 18-39 are five times more likely to be incarcerated than are their foreign-born peers. And, while the number of illegal immigrants in the country doubled between 1994 and 2005, violent crime declined by nearly 35% and property crimes by 26% over the same period. The PPIC even determined that on average, between 2000 and 2005, cities such as Los Angeles that took in a higher share of recent immigrants saw their crime rates fall further than cities with a lower influx of illegals.
Driving these statistics, researchers believe, are the same factors that drive immigration in the first place. "People who make the decision to come here from another country want to get ahead, establish a better life," says Harvard sociology professor Robert Sampson. "That dream is not something they're likely to risk by getting arrested."
Sampson and colleagues recently examined more than 3,000 violent acts committed in Chicago from 1995 to 2003, analyzing police records, census data and a survey of more than 8,000 residents. They discovered what Sampson calls the "Latino Paradox" — first-generation Mexican immigrants were 45% less likely to engage in violence than third-generation Americans. This pattern continued into the second generation, which was 22% less likely to be violent. Similar trends have been seen in New York and Miami, both of which have large immigrant enclaves. "Immigrant communities are often responsible for revitalizing the urban neighborhoods that they live in," Sampson says. The irony of people's popular misconceptions, he adds, is "that the longer one is exposed to American culture, the more likely you are to participate in violence."
Critics note that studies such as those mentioned above rarely distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants. Reliable data that separates the two groups is hard to find, but Indiana University economist Eric Rasmusen has culled figures from a 2005 GAO report on foreigners incarcerated in Federal and state prisons to calculate that illegal immigrants commit 21% of all crime in the United States, costing the country more than $84 billion. Rasmusen contends the distinction is important because immigrants with a green card or U.S. citizenship have already jumped through several legal hoops to live and work in the U.S., including a background check into any prior criminal record back home. "Legal immigrants are by definition unusually law-abiding," Rasmusen wrote last June. But Professor Daniel Mears, a Florida State University criminologist, argues that such reasoning can also be turned on its head. "If someone is here illegally," Mears asks, "why would they call attention to themselves by committing a crime?"
Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tighter immigration controls, warns that even if immigrants are less likely to commit crimes, their children and grandchildren may be more likely to end up on the wrong side of the law. He points out that U.S. Department of Justice statistics show that Hispanics make up 20% of state and Federal prison populations in 2005, a rise of 43% since 1990. At that rate, one in every six Hispanic males born in the U.S. today can expect to be imprisoned during his lifetime — more than double the rate for non-Hispanic whites, but lower than that of African-Americans of the same age. "That means the children and grandchildren of immigrants are committing a lot of crime, making this a long-term problem," Camarota says, before adding, "That's much worse news."
Whatever the findings of the latest PPIC research, it will do little to cool the passions on either side of the issue. When debating immigration, says Mears, "it doesn't matter what the empirical evidence shows; people react with their gut feelings first."
The original version of this article stated that Daniel Mears is a professor of criminology at the University of Florida. In fact, Daniel Mears is a professor of criminology at Florida State University.

After Immigrant Raid, Iowans Ask Why

By Betsy Rubiner/Postville Tuesday, May. 27, 2008

Two women attend a press conference at Saint Bridget Parish in Postville, Iowa.

Jessica Reilly / Telegraph Herald / AP

In this small northeastern Iowan town surrounded by newly planted cornfields, a middle-aged white woman walks into the local Guatemalan restaurant with her arm around a Hispanic child who is sobbing because she can't find her mother. After conferring with a restaurant worker, the woman takes the child nearby to St. Bridget's, a small 1970s-era brick Catholic church on a quiet tree-lined street that has become command central for what people in this community of 2,273 describe as a "disaster relief response."

In the aftermath of the nation's largest single-site immigration raid — a May 12 raid of a Postville-based meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors Inc. that took 389 workers into custody — Hispanic children and adults here remain fearful. And many white residents remain hard at work helping the people left behind — mostly women from Guatemala and Mexico and their children. To date, 270 illegal immigrant workers have pleaded guilty to unusually tough federal criminal charges of working with false documents and have received five-month prison sentences followed by deportation. About 40 female workers have been released temporarily to care for children. Suddenly without income, job prospects or spouses, they await court dates.
Many Hispanics, legal or not, fear that the immigration agents will return. (The original goal had been to arrest 697 of the plant's 968 workers.) On the first chaotic day of the raid, about 400 people fled to the church seeking safety, food, shelter, medical care and the whereabouts of family members. Now, Postville residents led by religious leaders have spontaneously stitched together a safety net. Their argument: if this were a natural disaster, FEMA would be here but instead it's a man-made tragedy and the government is providing little help. "It is my privilege to serve the needs of these people," says Sister Mary McCauley, a petite, white-haired woman with a kind smile who is St. Bridget's pastoral administrator. "[but] I don't know why they have left it to the faith community alone."
Responding with an outpouring of donated goods, money, time and caring, the volunteers are fueled by compassion, duty, and, increasingly, frustration and fury. They know too that immigrants have helped make Agriprocessors the nation's largest kosher meat processor and, in turn, helped Postville prosper while many small Iowa towns struggle. "They're being preyed upon," says John Schlee, 71, a volunteer wearing overalls and a farm implement company cap. "They're doing work that the American workers don't want to do. They're searching for a better life and now their families are being torn apart."
Anti-immigrant sentiment and ethnic tensions are not unknown in this unusually diverse Iowa small town, whose residents include descendants of German and Norwegian Lutherans and Irish Catholics as well as more recent arrivals — Latin Americans, Ukrainians and Hasidic Jews drawn here by the plant. A few angry people have called the church, complaining about its care of "criminals." But volunteers like Ardie Kuhse, 60, shrug this off. "Yes, they were illegal. But they were working. Is that a crime? They're a part of our community," says Kuhse, near tears as she recalls trying to calm children after the raid.
On the weekend before Memorial Day, St. Bridget's social hall bustled with Hispanic families seeking financial and legal advice, including Sylvia Ruiz, 40, and Marta Veronica, 32, Guatemalans who wore electronic ankle bracelets. "We can't work. We can't provide for our kids. God bless the church," says Veronica, speaking through a Spanish interpreter. She is looking after a daughter and two teen-age nephews, who were among several minors detained and later released. Cooking meals, making beds, unloading trucks and running errands, the volunteers include people from Postville, other Iowa communities and beyond — lawyers, religious leaders, staff from a nonprofit Latino aid center in Waterloo and students and faculty from Iowa colleges.
At one card table, a Cornell College student helped people locate family and friends. Above them hung an Iowa map pocked with post-it notes showing the locations of detention centers. Nearby, a Lutheran minister conferred with a Hasidic man who runs the local kosher grocery store. At another card table, two nuns filled out a raid "registration and care" form for two Hispanic men, assisted by two Luther College students acting as interpreters.
Donations are being used to help pay for necessities like rent and utilities. In the church rectory, lawyers met individually with immigrants struggling to understand criminal and immigration law. The unusually rapid court proceedings have raised concerns about violations of due process. There have been allegations that workers have been exploited. Some immigrants fear eviction as replacement workers arrive and need lodging. They have other questions: Where are the men and women serving their sentences? When will the temporarily released mothers face charges? How do they get and pay for passports for children who are U.S. citizens?
Sylvia Ruiz, who is preparing for a likely return to Guatemala, has four children ages 18, 16, 7 and 2. "The little ones don't understand what's happening," she says. "The older ones do." At Postville's K-8 school, where about half of the 387 students are Hispanic and some have been at the school for years, Principal Chad Wahls predicts 70 to 120 children won't return next fall, possibly including the best friends of his third-grade daughter, who "cried and cried for days" after the raid. When school breaks for summer this week, he predicts more tears — from teachers.
Braced for months of waiting and uncertainty, many Postville residents are certain about one thing: "We have to have comprehensive immigration reform so these people who desire to work can. We have to have a way to welcome them," says Sister McCauley. "When people are so hurt, we have to take a look at the law."

Sunday, Jun. 11, 2006

Does Fatherhood Make You Happy?

By Daniel Gilbert

Sonora Smart Dodd was listening to a sermon on self-sacrifice when she decided that her father, a widower who had raised six children, deserved his very own national holiday. Almost a century later, people all over the world spend the third Sunday in June honoring their fathers with ritual offerings of aftershave and neckties, which leads millions of fathers to have precisely the same thought at precisely the same moment: "My children," they think in unison, "make me happy."
Could all those dads be wrong?
Studies reveal that most married couples start out happy and then become progressively less satisfied over the course of their lives, becoming especially disconsolate when their children are in diapers and in adolescence, and returning to their initial levels of happiness only after their children have had the decency to grow up and go away. When the popular press invented a malady called "empty-nest syndrome," it failed to mention that its primary symptom is a marked increase in smiling.
Psychologists have measured how people feel as they go about their daily activities, and have found that people are less happy when they are interacting with their children than when they are eating, exercising, shopping or watching television. Indeed, an act of parenting makes most people about as happy as an act of housework. Economists have modeled the impact of many variables on people's overall happiness and have consistently found that children have only a small impact. A small negative impact.
Those findings are hard to swallow because they fly in the face of our most compelling intuitions. We love our children! We talk about them to anyone who will listen, show their photographs to anyone who will look and hide our refrigerators behind vast collages of their drawings, notes, pictures and report cards. We feel confident that we are happy with our kids, about our kids, for our kids and because of our kids--so why is our personal experience at odds with the scientific data?
Three reasons.
First, when something makes us happy we are willing to pay a lot for it, which is why the worst Belgian chocolate is more expensive than the best Belgian tofu. But that process can work in reverse: when we pay a lot for something, we assume it makes us happy, which is why we swear to the wonders of bottled water and Armani socks. The compulsion to care for our children was long ago written into our DNA, so we toil and sweat, lose sleep and hair, play nurse, housekeeper, chauffeur and cook, and we do all that because nature just won't have it any other way. Given the high price we pay, it isn't surprising that we rationalize those costs and conclude that our children must be repaying us with happiness.
Second, if the Red Sox and the Yankees were scoreless until Manny Ramirez hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth, you can be sure that Boston fans would remember it as the best game of the season. Memories are dominated by their most powerful--and not their most typical--instances. Just as a glorious game-winning homer can erase our memory of 812 dull innings, the sublime moment when our 3-year-old looks up from the mess she is making with her mashed potatoes and says, "I wub you, Daddy," can erase eight hours of no, not yet, not now and stop asking. Children may not make us happy very often, but when they do, that happiness is both transcendent and amnesic.
Third, although most of us think of heroin as a source of human misery, shooting heroin doesn't actually make people feel miserable. It makes them feel really, really good--so good, in fact, that it crowds out every other source of pleasure. Family, friends, work, play, food, sex--none can compete with the narcotic experience; hence all fall by the wayside. The analogy to children is all too clear. Even if their company were an unremitting pleasure, the fact that they require so much company means that other sources of pleasure will all but disappear. Movies, theater, parties, travel--those are just a few of the English nouns that parents of young children quickly forget how to pronounce. We believe our children are our greatest joy, and we're absolutely right. When you have one joy, it's bound to be the greatest.
Our children give us many things, but an increase in our average daily happiness is probably not among them. Rather than deny that fact, we should celebrate it. Our ability to love beyond all measure those who try our patience and weary our bones is at once our most noble and most human quality. The fact that children don't always make us happy--and that we're happy to have them nonetheless--is the fact for which Sonora Smart Dodd was so grateful. She thought we would all do well to remember it, every third Sunday in June.
Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert is the author of Stumbling on Happiness. To read an interview, go to time.com/gilbert

As Marriage and Parenthood Drift Apart, Public Is Concerned about Social Impact

Generation Gap in Values, Behaviors

July 1, 2007

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Executive Summary

• A Generation Gap in Behaviors and Values. Younger adults attach far less moral stigma than do their elders to out-of-wedlock births and cohabitation without marriage. They engage in these behaviors at rates unprecedented in U.S. history. Nearly four-in-ten (36.8%) births in this country are to an unmarried woman. Nearly half (47%) of adults in their 30s and 40s have spent a portion of their lives in a cohabiting relationship.
• Public Concern over the Delinking of Marriage and Parenthood. Adults of all ages consider unwed parenting to be a big problem for society. At the same time, however, just four-in-ten (41%) say that children are very important to a successful marriage, compared with 65% of the public who felt this way as recently as 1990.
• Marriage Remains an Ideal, Albeit a More Elusive One. Even though a decreasing percentage of the adult population is married, most unmarried adults say they want to marry. Married adults are more satisfied with their lives than are unmarried adults.
• Children Still Vital to Adult Happiness. Children may be perceived as less central to marriage, but they are as important as ever to their parents. As a source of adult happiness and fulfillment, children occupy a pedestal matched only by spouses and situated well above that of jobs, career, friends, hobbies and other relatives.
• Cohabitation Becomes More Prevalent. With marriage exerting less influence over how adults organize their lives and bear their children, cohabitation is filling some of the vacuum. Today about a half of all nonmarital births are to a cohabiting couple; 15 years ago, only about a third were. Cohabiters are ambivalent about marriage – just under half (44%) say they to want marry; a nearly equal portion (41%) say they aren't sure.
• Divorce Seen as Preferable to an Unhappy Marriage. Americans by lopsided margins endorse the mom-and-dad home as the best setting in which to raise children. But by equally lopsided margins, they believe that if married parents are very unhappy with one another, divorce is the best option, both for them and for their children.
• Racial Patterns are Complex. Blacks are much less likely than whites to marry and much more likely to have children outside of marriage. However, an equal percentage of both whites and blacks (46% and 44%, respectively) consider it morally wrong to have a child out of wedlock. Hispanics, meantime, place greater importance than either whites or blacks do on children as a key to a successful marriage – even though they have a higher nonmarital birth rate than do whites.
• Survey Sample and Methods. These findings are from a telephone survey conducted from February 16 through March 14, 2007 among a randomly-selected, nationally representative sample of 2,020 adults.

Overview

Americans believe that births to unwed women are a big problem for society, and they take a mixed view at best of cohabitation without marriage. Yet these two nontraditional behaviors have become commonplace among younger adults, who have a different set of moral values from their elders about sex, marriage and parenthood, a new Pew Research Center Survey finds.

This generational values gap helps to explain the decades-long surge in births to unmarried women – which now comprise nearly four-in-ten (37%) births in the United States – as well as the sharp rise in living together without getting married, which, the Pew survey finds, is something that nearly half of all adults in their 30s and 40s have done for at least a portion of their lives.

But this generational divide is only part of a more complex story. Americans of all ages, this survey finds, acknowledge that there has been a distinct weakening of the link between marriage and parenthood. In perhaps the single most striking finding from the survey, just 41% of Americans now say that children are "very important" to a successful marriage, down sharply from the 65% who said this in a 1990 survey.

Indeed, children have fallen to eighth out of nine on a list of items that people associate with successful marriages – well behind "sharing household chores," "good housing," "adequate income," "happy sexual relationship," and "faithfulness." Back in 1990, when the American public was given this same list on a World Values Survey, children ranked third in importance.

The new Pew survey also finds that, by a margin of nearly three-to-one, Americans say that the main purpose of marriage is the "mutual happiness and fulfillment" of adults rather than the "bearing and raising of children."

In downgrading the importance of children to marriage, public opinion both reflects and facilitates the upheavals in marital and parenting patterns that have taken place over the past several decades.

In the United States today, marriage exerts less influence over how adults organize their lives and how children are born and raised than at any time in the nation's history. Only about half of all adults (ages 18 and older) in the U.S. are married; only about seven-in-ten children live with two parents; and nearly four-in-ten births are to unwed mothers, according to U.S. Census figures. As recently as the early 1970s, more than six-in-ten adults in this country were married; some 85% of children were living with two parents; and just one-birth-in-ten was to an unwed mother.

Americans take a dim view of these trends, the Pew survey finds. More than seven-in-ten (71%) say the growth in births to unwed mothers is a "big problem." About the same proportion – 69% – says that a child needs both a mother and a father to grow up happily.

Not surprisingly, however, attitudes are much different among those adults who have themselves engaged in these nontraditional behaviors. For example, respondents in the survey who are never-married parents (about 8% of all parents) are less inclined than ever-married parents to see unmarried childbearing as bad for society or morally wrong. They're also less inclined to say a child needs both a mother and father to grow up happily. Demographically, this group is more likely than ever-married parents to be young, black or Hispanic,¹ less educated, and to have been raised by an unwed parent themselves.

There is another fast-growing group – cohabiters – that has a distinctive set of attitudes and moral codes about these matters. According to the Pew survey, about a third of all adults (and more than four-in-ten adults under age 50) have, at some point in their lives, been in a cohabiting relationship with a person to whom they were not married. This group is less likely that the rest of the adult population to believe that premarital sex is wrong. They're less prone to say that it's bad for society that more people are living together without getting married. Demographically, this group is more likely than the rest of the adult population to be younger, black, and secular rather than religious.

Marriage

But while this survey finds that people in nontraditional marital and parenting situations tend to have attitudes that track with their behaviors, it does not show that they place less value than others on marriage as a pathway to personal happiness.

To the contrary, both the never-married parents as well as the cohabiters in our survey tend to be more skeptical than others in the adult population that a person can lead a complete and fulfilled life if he or she remains single. This may reflect the fact that never-married parents as well as cohabiters tend to be less satisfied with their current lives than is the rest of the population. For many of them, marriage appears to represent an ideal – albeit an elusive, unrealized one.

Along these same lines, the survey finds that low income adults are more likely than middle income or affluent adults to cite the ability to meet basic economic needs (in the form of adequate income and good housing) as a key to a successful marriage. Adults with lower socioeconomic status – reflected by either education or income levels –also are less likely than others to marry, perhaps in part because they can't meet this economic bar.

And it's this decline in marriage that is at the heart of the sharp growth in nonmarital childbearing. This trend has not been primarily driven – as some popular wisdom has it – on an increase in births to teenage mothers. To the contrary, those rates have been falling for several decades. Rather the sharp increase in nonmarital births is being driven by the fact that an ever greater percentage of women in their 20s, 30s and older are delaying or forgoing marriage but having children.

The Pew survey was conducted by telephone from February 16 through March 14, 2007 among a randomly selected, nationally-representative sample of 2,020 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points.

Children

The survey finds that while children may have become less central to marriage, they are as important as ever to their parents. Asked to weigh how important various aspects of their lives are to their personal happiness and fulfillment, parents in this survey place their relationships with their children on a pedestal rivaled only by their relationships with their spouses – and far above their relationships with their parents, friends, or their jobs or career. This is true both for married and unmarried parents. In fact, relatively speaking, children are most pre-eminent in the lives of unwed parents.

The survey also finds that Americans retain traditional views about the best family structure in which to raise children. More than two-thirds (69%) say that a child needs both a mother and father to grow up happily. This question has been posed periodically over the past quarter century,² and – even as the percentage of children who live with both a mother and father has dropped steadily during this time period – public opinion has remained steadfastly in favor of a home with a mom and a dad.

In keeping with these traditional views, the public strongly disapproves of single women having children. Among the various demographic changes that have affected marriage and parenting patterns in recent decades – including more women working outside the home; more people living together without getting married; more first marriages at a later age; and more unmarried women having children – it's the latter trend that draws the most negative assessments by far.

Two-thirds (66%) of all respondents say that single women having children is bad for society, and nearly as many (59%) say the same about unmarried couples having children. No other social change we asked about in this particular battery drew a thumbs-down from more than half of respondents.

Divorce

While the public strongly prefers the traditional mother-and-father home, this endorsement has some clear limits. By a margin of 67% to 19%, Americans say that when there is a marriage in which the parents are very unhappy with one another, their children are better off if the parents get divorced. Similarly, by a margin of 58% to 38%, more Americans agree with the statement that "divorce is painful, but preferable to maintaining an unhappy marriage" than agree with the statement that "divorce should be avoided except in an extreme situation."

Thus, public attitudes toward divorce and single parenting have taken different paths over the past generation. When it comes to divorce, public opinion has become more accepting.³ When it comes to single parenting, public opinion has remained quite negative.

The oddity is that rates of divorce, after more than doubling from 1960 to 1980, have declined by about a third in recent decades, despite this greater public acceptance. On the other hand, the rates of births to unwed mothers have continued to rise, despite the steadfast public disapproval. Some 37% of all births in the U.S. in 2005 were to an unwed mother, up from just 5% in 1960. This rapid growth is not confined to the U.S. Rates of births to unwed mothers also have risen sharply in the United Kingdom and Canada, where they are at about the same levels as they are in the U.S. And they've reached even higher levels in Western and Northern European countries such as France, Denmark and Sweden.

Public Opinion by Demographic Groups

The group differences in public opinion on these matters tend to be correlated with age, religion, race and ethnicity, as well as with the choices that people have made in their own marital and parenting lives. There are some, but not many, differences by gender. Here is a rundown of the key differences by group.

Age, Religiosity and Political Conservatism

As noted above, the Pew survey finds that older adults – who came of age prior to the social and cultural upheavals of the 1960s – are more conservative than younger and middle-aged adults in their views on virtually all of these matters of marriage and parenting. Thus, some of the overall change in public opinion is the result of what scholars call "generational replacement." That is, as older generations die off and are replaced by younger generations, public opinion shifts to reflect the attitudes of the age cohorts that now make up the bulk of the adult population.

Even among the younger generations (ages 18 to 64), however, our survey finds substantial differences in attitudes that fall along the fault lines of religion and ideology rather than age.

White evangelical Protestants and people of all faiths who attend religious services at least weekly hold more conservative viewpoints on pretty much the whole gamut of questions asked on the Pew survey. This is true across all age groups. For example, white evangelical Protestants are more likely than other religious groups to consider premarital sex morally wrong.

They are more likely to consider the rise in unmarried childbearing and cohabitation bad for society and more likely to agree that a child needs both a mother and father to be happy. They also are more likely to say legal marriage is very important when a couple plans to have children together or plans to spend the rest of their lives together. Further, white evangelical Protestants are more likely than white mainline Protestants to say that divorce should be avoided except in extreme circumstances and to consider it better for the children when parents remain married, though very unhappy with each other. In sum, white evangelical Protestants have a strong belief in the importance of marriage and strong moral prescriptions against premarital sex and childbearing outside of marriage.

The pattern is the same among those of any faith who attend religious services more frequently, compared with less frequent attendees. And it is the same for political conservatives compared with their more moderate or liberal counterparts.

Race and Ethnicity

The racial and ethnic patterns in public opinion on these matters are more complex. Blacks and Hispanic are more likely than whites to bear children out of wedlock. And yet these minority groups, our survey finds, also are more inclined than whites to place a high value on the importance of children to a successful marriage. Indeed, they place higher value than whites do on the importance of most of the ingredients of a successful marriage that this survey asked about – especially the economic components. But blacks and Hispanics are less likely than whites to be married. One possible explanation to emerge from this survey is that many members of these minority groups may be setting a high bar for marriage that they themselves cannot reach, whether for economic or other reasons.

As noted above, there are sharp generational differences in views about the morality of unwed parenting. However, there is no significant difference on this front by race or ethnicity; blacks, Hispanics and whites are about equally likely to say it is wrong for unmarried women to have children. There are small differences along racial and ethnic lines when it comes to evaluating the impact on society of the growing numbers of children born out of wedlock. Hispanics are somewhat less negative about this phenomenon than are whites and blacks, between whom there is no statistically significant difference.

When it comes to the relationship between marriage and children, Hispanics again stand out. They are more inclined than either whites or blacks to consider having and raising children to be the main purpose of marriage (even so, however, a majority of Hispanics say that adult happiness and fulfillment is the main purpose of a marriage). Also, Hispanics – more so than either blacks or whites – consider children "very important" for a successful marriage.

But when considering a broader range of characteristics of a successful marriage, it is whites who stand apart. They are much less likely than either blacks or Hispanics to consider adequate income, good housing and children to be "very important" to a successful marriage. And they are somewhat less likely to rate various measures of compatibility (see chart) as being important as well. To some degree all these racial and ethnic differences reflect the differing socioeconomic circumstances of whites, blacks and Hispanics. People with higher incomes and education levels – regardless of their race and ethnicity – tend to rate these various characteristics as less important to marriage than do people with a lower socio-economic status.

When it comes to views about divorce, whites and, especially, Hispanics are more likely than blacks to say that divorce is preferable to maintaining an unhappy marriage. However, about two-thirds of all three groups say that it is better for the children if their very unhappy parents divorce rather than stay together.

Views about cohabitation are similar for blacks and whites, while Hispanics are a bit less negative about the impact of cohabitation on society. But the similarities between blacks and whites masks divisions of opinion within each group. Among whites, the difference of opinion between generations is particularly sharp – with 55% of whites ages 50 and older saying that living together is bad for society, compared with 38% among younger whites, a difference of 17 percentage points. The comparable difference between older and younger blacks is just 9 percentage points. Among older blacks and whites, the balance of opinion is tilted in the negative direction. For younger whites (ages 18 to 49), a plurality hold a neutral assessment of the impact on society of couples living together without marrying. Among younger blacks, opinion about cohabitation is more divided; 48% of this group considers living together bad for society while 45% take a neutral position and 5% say it is good for society.

To some degree, views about cohabitation reflect differing moral assessments of premarital sex. Blacks are more likely than whites and Hispanics to say that premarital sex is always or almost always morally wrong – and this is true even after group differences in age are taken into account. Those who consider premarital sex wrong also tend to consider cohabitation bad for society, while those who say premarital sex is not wrong or is only wrong in some circumstances are more likely to say the cohabitation trend makes no difference for society.

When it comes to marital and parenting behaviors (as opposed to attitudes), a number of racial and ethnic patterns stand out.

More than eight-in-ten white adults in this country have been married, compared with just seven-in-ten Hispanic adults and slightly more than half (54%) of all black adults. Among blacks, there is a strong correlation between frequent church attendance, moral disapproval of premarital sex and the tendency to marry. Among whites (who marry at much higher rates) this relationship is not as strong.

Among those who have ever been married, blacks (38%) and whites (34%) are more likely than Hispanics (23%) to have been divorced. Blacks also are somewhat more likely than whites or Hispanics to have cohabited without marriage. But all three groups, this survey finds, are equally likely to have had children.

Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to have children out of wedlock. For all groups, this behavior also is strongly correlated with lower educational attainment. For blacks and Hispanics (more so than for whites), frequent church attendance correlates negatively with the likelihood of being an unwed parent.

Gender

The Pew survey finds a great deal of common ground between men and women on issues surrounding marriage and parenting. There are some small differences, however. While men and women are about equally likely to see unmarried parenting as a problem for society, men are a bit more negative than women about unmarried parenting when no male partner is involved in raising the children. Similarly, men are a little more likely than women to believe that children need both a mother and father to be happy. Women, on the other hand, are a bit more likely than men to consider divorce preferable to maintaining an unhappy marriage; they also believe more strongly than men that divorce is the better option for children when the marriage is very unhappy. On other matters – such as the main purpose of marriage or the characteristics of a successful marriage – there are few differences.

Education and Income

College-educated adults and high-income adults marry at higher rates and divorce at lower rates than do those with less education and income. They are also less likely to have children outside of marriage.⁴

However, despite the sharp differences by socio-economic status in marital and parenting behaviors, there are only minor differences by socio-economic status in values and attitudes about marriage and parenting. Adults with higher incomes and more education tend to be slightly less inclined than others to say that premarital sex and nonmarital births are always morally wrong. The college educated also are slightly less inclined than the less educated to say it is very important for couples to legally marry if they plan to spend their lives together. Similarly, those with a college education are a little more likely to say that a man or woman can lead a complete and happy life if he or she remains single.

There are no more than minimal differences by education or income when it comes to views about the impact on society of unmarried childbirths and of cohabitation.

Family Background

The Pew survey finds some strong correlations between the kinds of family arrangements that respondents experienced growing up and their own behaviors in adulthood. For example, among respondents who are themselves products of parents who never married, about a third (32%) are themselves never-married parents. By comparison, just 5% of the general adult population are products of never-married parents.

Family background in childhood plays a smaller role, however, in predicting adult attitudes (as opposed to behaviors) about whether unmarried parenting is bad for society and morally wrong. Once age differences are taken into account, those whose parents never married are just a bit less negative than those whose parents married and never divorced about the impact of unmarried childbearing on society.

Respondents with parents who divorced are just as likely as other respondents to take the position that divorce is painful but preferable to maintaining an unhappy marriage. Similarly, among people ages 18 to 49, the now grown children of divorce hold about the same views as those who grew up in a traditional-married-parent arrangement on whether divorce is better for children than parents staying in an unhappy marriage. On the other hand, those respondents whose parents divorced are less likely than other respondents to believe that a child needs a home with both a mother and a father to grow up happily.

Moral Beliefs, Attitudes and Behaviors

There are close relationships between behaviors, attitudes and moral beliefs when it comes to the subjects of unwed parenting and cohabitation, the Pew survey finds. For example, those who have fewer moral reservations about premarital sex and are positive or neutral about the impact of living together on society also are more likely to have lived with a partner themselves. Similarly, those who are positive or neutral about the social impact of unmarried parenting and less likely to consider it morally wrong are also more likely to be in this situation themselves. It is not possible from this survey to disentangle which came first--the moral beliefs, the attitudes, or the behaviors--but it is clear they tend to go hand-in-hand.

Statistical analysis of these survey findings shows that having less education and being black or Hispanic are traits associated with being a never-married parent. Attending religious services less often also is associated with being an unmarried parent, particularly among blacks and Hispanics.

On the other side of the coin, those who believe that having children without being married is wrong are less likely to be a never-married parent. Also, those who consider the rise in unmarried parents bad for society are less likely to be unmarried parents.

A statistical analysis of factors correlated with ever having lived with a partner outside of marriage shows that cohabiters are younger, more likely to be black, and, after controlling for other demographic factors, less likely to be Hispanic. They are also less likely to attend religious services frequently. There is a strong relationship between moral beliefs about premarital sex and cohabitation history; those who consider premarital sex always wrong are less likely to have cohabited than others. They are also less likely to have cohabited than those who say living together is bad for society – suggesting that the more powerful stigma against cohabitation comes from concerns about morality rather than from concerns about social consequences.

A different pattern emerges when looking at differences between married people who have – and haven't – been divorced. Here, the demographic and attitudinal factors do little to predict the probability of experience with divorce.

There are a few exceptions, however. Catholics are bit less likely than members of other religious groups to have been divorced. And there is a modest correlation between having been divorced and believing that divorce is better for the children than maintaining a very unhappy marriage.

But in the main, experience with divorce cuts across all demographic subgroups more evenly than does experience either with unmarried parenting or with cohabitation. The belief that divorce is preferable to maintaining an unhappy marriage is widely shared by both those who have and have not been divorced.

The body of this report provides a deeper analysis of attitudes and behaviors on all these matters. It is presented in five sections:

I. Nonmarital Childbearing
II. Modern Marriage
III. Cohabitation
IV. Divorce
V. Gay Marriage, Civil Unions and Same-Sex Couples Raising Children

Notes

¹Throughout this report, the term blacks or whites refers to non-Hispanic blacks or whites, respectively. Hispanics are of any race. The survey included an oversample of blacks and Hispanics. Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish.
²See the World Values Surveys conducted in the U.S. in 1982, 1990, 1995 and 1999.
³See for example, Thornton, Arland and Linda Young-DeMarco. 2001. "Four Decades of Trends in Attitudes Toward Family Issues in the United States: The 1960s Through the 1990s." Journal of Marriage and Family, 63: 1009-1037.
⁴Bianchi, Suzanne M. and Lynne M. Casper. 2000. "American Families." Population Bulletin 55(4). Population Reference Bureau.

Download the complete report

Why are People Having Fewer Kids?

Perhaps it's because they don't like them very much.

Ronald Bailey | February 26, 2008
The "demographic winter" is coming. So warns a new documentary of the same name. What is the demographic winter? The phrase, according to the film's promotional materials, "denotes the worldwide decline in birthrates, also referred to as the 'birth dearth,' and what that portends." The first half of Demographic Winter was previewed at the conservative Heritage Foundation a couple of weeks ago. According the film, the demographic winter augurs little good, e.g., economic collapse and social deterioration. If current trends continue world population should begin a steep decline sometime around the middle of the 21st century. Why?

Because total fertility rates (TFRs) are plummeting around the world. Population stability is achieved when each woman bears an average of 2.1 kids over the course of her lifetime—one for her, one for her male partner, and a little overage to make up to childhood deaths. Today, there are sixty countries in which TFRs are below 2.1. For example, the European Union's TFR is 1.5 and no EU member state has a TFR at replacement or above. Even high population developing countries have seen steep declines in fertility. Since 1970, China's TFR fell from 5.8 to 1.6; India's from 5.8 to 2.9; Indonesia from 5.6 to 2.4; Japan's from 2.0 to 1.3; Mexico's from 6.8 to 2.4; Brazil's from 5.4 to 2.3; and South Africa's from 5.9 to 2.7. The U.S. TFR dropped from 2.55 in 1970 to around 2.1 today, largely because of the influx of higher fertility immigrants. However, the fertility of second generation Americans drops to the level of longer established Americans.

I doubt that the "demographic winter" portends economic collapse or social deterioration, but let us set that aside for this column, and instead ask why people are choosing to have fewer children? After all, voluntary childlessness seems to violate the Darwinian premise that our genes dispose us, like all other creatures, to try to reproduce.

However, demographic data are undercutting the notion that there is some kind of sociobiological nurturing imperative, economist and demographer Nicholas Eberstadt noted during the question period following the documentary. As evidence, he pointed to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, where 30 percent of women are childless and that Hong Kong's TFR has been below 1 birth per woman for at least a decade.

Demographic Winter asserts that "every aspect of modernity works against family life and in favor of singleness and small families or voluntary childlessness." And surely they are right. Modern societies offer people many other satisfactions and choices outside of the family. In particular women find that their time becomes more highly valued in occupations outside the home. There are no iron laws of demography, but one that comes pretty close is that the more educated women are, the fewer children they tend to have. Eberstadt also noted the best predictor of fertility levels is the desired family size as reported by women. And finally, the most profound event of the 20th century may have been the sexual revolution's drive toward gender equality, enabled by modern contraception. Unlike other creatures, people can have the fun of sex without the side effect of parenthood.

So, modernity essentially transforms children from capital goods that produce family income into consumption items to be enjoyed for their own sakes, more akin to sculptures, paintings, or theatre. But that's just the problem—according to happiness researchers, people don't really enjoy rearing children.

"Economists have modeled the impact of many variables on people's overall happiness and have consistently found that children have only a small impact. A small negative impact," reports Harvard psychologist and happiness researcher Daniel Gilbert. In addition, the more children a person has the less happy they are. According to Gilbert, researchers have found that people derive more satisfaction from eating, exercising, shopping, napping, or watching television than taking care of their kids. "Indeed, looking after the kids appears to be only slightly more pleasant than doing housework," asserts Gilbert in his bestselling, Stumbling on Happiness (2006).

Of course, that's not what most parents say when asked. For instance, in a 2007 Pew Research Center survey people insisted that their relationships with their little darlings are of the greatest importance to their personal happiness and fulfillment. However, the same survey also found "by a margin of nearly three-to-one, Americans say that the main purpose of marriage is the 'mutual happiness and fulfillment' of adults rather than the 'bearing and raising of children.'"

Gilbert suggests that people claim their kids are their chief source of happiness largely because it's what they are expected to say. In addition, Gilbert observes that the more people pay for an item, the more highly they tend to value it and children are expensive, even if you don't throw in piano lessons, soccer camps, orthodonture, and college tuitions. Gilbert further notes that the more children people have, the less happy they tend to be. Since that is the case, it is not surprising that people are choosing to have fewer children. And if people with fewer children are happier, then people with no children must be happiest, right? Not exactly, but the data do suggest that voluntarily childless women and men are not less happy than parents. And they sure do have more money to squander as they try to pursue what happiness they can and strive to somehow fill up their allegedly empty lives.

Disclosure: My wife and I try not to flaunt our voluntarily childless lifestyle too much.

Ronald Bailey is reason's science correspondent. His most recent book, Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution, is available from Prometheus Books.

Freemasonry is not compatible with Christianity or Southern Baptist doctrine.

Freemasonry

By NAMB Staff
During the annual session of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), June 15-17, 1993, the messengers overwhelmingly approved a report on Freemasonry. This action recognized the many charitable endeavors of Freemasonry. It also acknowledged that "many outstanding Christians and Southern Baptists now are, and in the past have been Masons."¹ For the first time in the history of the SBC, however, the Convention concluded, "many tenets and teachings of Freemasonry are not compatible with Christianity or Southern Baptist doctrine."² The report accepted by the Convention identified eight tenets and teachings of Freemasonry that it concluded were not compatible with Christianity.³
First Incompatibility: The prevalent use of offensive concepts, titles, and terms such as "Worshipful Master" for the leader of a lodge; references to their buildings as "mosques," "shrines," or "temples"; and the use of words such as "Abaddon" and "Jah- Bul-On,"⁴ the so-called secret name of God. To many, these terms are not only offensive but sacrilegious.
Biblical Response: The so-called secret name of God illustrates the offensive nature of the above terms for Christians. Albert Pike, one of the most influential Masonic writers, explained the first two syllables of the secret name in his discussion of the old French rituals of Freemasonry:
This is probably Jabulum, incorrectly copied; which, as I have shown, meant 'the product of, that which proceeded, issued or emanated from Om.'
If correctly written, it is compounded of … Yu or Yah-u,… Baal or Bal or Bel, and Om, thus combining the names of the Hebrew, Phoenician and Hindu Deities, to indicate that they are in reality the same. In some old rituals it is Jabulum.⁵
Many leaders of Freemasonry confuse pagan deities with the true God of the Bible. The Christian Scriptures never represent pagan deities as simply different representations of the one true God. The Bible rejects all pagan deities as false gods and goddesses. Exodus 20:4-5 states: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." The Bible also rejects the idea that idolaters worship the true God but know Him by a different name. Israel used the correct personal name for God, yet God rejected their worship because of their use of an idol.
He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'"
"I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation" (Ex. 32:4- 10).⁶
Non-Christian religions recognize many different gods and goddesses, but none of these are a representation of the true God of the Bible. All pagan deities are false gods and must be rejected by Christians. The gods and goddesses of the non-Christian religions are different in nature and character from the biblical God. The differences are far greater and more significant than the terminology or name used to refer to God. No Christian should have any part in a ritual that honors or glorifies a pagan deity.
The 31st degree of the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction is especially troubling for Christians because of the honor and glory it attributes to Egyptian deities. The following quotes are from the official Masonic commentary on the Scottish Rite degrees:
The second section takes place in a re-creation of the Court of the Dead in Egyptian mythology, a place where judgment is rendered on the worthiness of a recently deceased man to enter into the kingdom of the gods. This section of the ritual relies heavily on The Book of the Dead.
The candidate is brought into the Court of the Dead to be judged for actions while living and to determine if he deserves to dwell among the gods. His escort is Horus. Isis, Horus' mother, speaks first, inquiring whose ka has come to be judged.
Through Horus, the candidate claims to have led the most virtuous of lives. The gods express their hope that he speaks the truth. They ask him to approach the balance and stand near the body that was his in life.
Isis now directs the candidate to the altar of the great god Khem, the source of life. Here she inquires about the honesty of the deceased through six questions. Thoth again records the answers.
The answers to all of the specific questions before the altars of various deities are now thrown upon the balance, making the pans nearly equal.
Osiris, having once been a man and subject to the passions and weaknesses of human existence, knows that the other gods cannot appreciate human fallibility. He renders the final judgment-this man is worthy of admittance into the realm of everlasting light and rest and peace.⁷
The above reference to the Egyptian god Osiris goes so far as to attribute to him the same qualities and preeminence that the Bible assigns to Christ Jesus.⁸ Any participation by Christians in such rituals (even by proxy) is inexcusable. Joshua 23:7 states: "Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them."
Second Incompatibility: The use of archaic, offensive rituals and so-called "bloody oaths" or "obligations," among these being that promised by the Entered Apprentice:
"All this I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, . . . binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my throat cut from ear to ear, my tongue torn out by its roots, and buried in the sands of the sea, at low water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-five hours, should I, in the least, knowingly or wittingly violate or transgress this my Entered Apprentice obligation."
Or that of the Fellow Craft degree:
"All this I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, . . . binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my left breast torn open, my heart plucked from thence, and given to the beast of the field and the birds of the air as prey, should I, in the least, knowingly or wittingly, violate or transgress this my Fellow Craft obligation."
Or that of the Master Mason:
"All this I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, . . . binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my body severed in two, my bowels torn from thence and burned to ashes, and these scattered before the four winds of heaven, that no more remembrance might be had among men or Masons of so vile a wretch as I should be, should I, in the least, knowingly or wittingly violate or transgress this my Master Mason obligation. So help me God and keep me steadfast."
Or that of other advanced degrees with required rituals considered by many to be pagan and incompatible with Christian faith and practice.
Even though these oaths, obligations, and rituals may or may not be taken seriously by the initiate, it is inappropriate for a Christian to "sincerely promise and swear," with a hand on the Holy Bible, any such promises or oaths, or to participate in any such pagan rituals.⁹
Biblical Response: Both Jesus and the apostle James taught that Christians should avoid the kind of extravagant oaths found in the rituals of Freemasonry. Christians should simply let their "yes"be "yes," and their "no" mean "no." In Matthew 5:34-37, Jesus taught the following:
But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Likewise, in his epistle, James wrote: "Above all, my brothers, do not swear-not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned" (Jas. 5:12).
The oaths required by Freemasonry are far worse than the examples the New Testament warns its readers against making. The Entered Apprentice swears under no fewer penalties than that of having his "throat cut from ear to ear," and his "tongue torn out by its roots, and buried in the sands of the sea." In the Fellow Craft degree, he swears under no less penalty than that of having his "left breast torn open," his "heart plucked from thence" and "given to the beast of the field and the birds of the air as prey." The candidate for the Mason degree swears under no fewer penalties than that of having his "bowels torn from thence and burned to ashes, and these scattered before the four winds of heaven."
Some Masons claim that the candidates for the degrees do not take these oaths seriously and, therefore, the oaths are compatible with Christian teaching. However, the Bible warns that oaths should be taken seriously and not given rashly. Leviticus 5:4 says, "Or if a person thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil-in any matter one might carelessly swear about-even though he is unaware of it, in any case when he learns of it he will be guilty."
Third Incompatibility: The recommended readings, in pursuance of advanced degrees, of religions and philosophies, which are undeniably pagan and/or occultic, such as much of the writings of Albert Pike, Albert Mackey, Manly Hall, Rex Hutchens, W. L .Wilmshurst, and other such authors; along with their works, such as Morals and Dogma, A Bridge to Light, An Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, and The Meaning of Masonry.
Biblical Response: Several of these Masonic writers deny the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. For example, Rex Hutchens wrote:
The purpose of teaching the concept of a Messiah in Freemasonry is to point out its near universality in the well-developed religions of the ancient world. We see references to Dionysius of the Greeks, Sosiosch of the Persians, Krishna of the Hindus, Osiris of the Egyptians, Jesus of the Christians. The purpose of these varying cultures' messiahs was to find in human form a source of intercession with Deity; in particular one who, as a human, had been tempted and suffered the daily pangs of life and so could be expected to possess a particular sympathy and understanding; in a word, the messiahs expressed hope.¹⁰
In addition, some of these writers confuse false pagan beliefs with the teaching of Christianity. Albert Pike, in the following quote, confused the Christian Trinity with the Hindu Universal Soul: "Behold the True Masonic Trinity; the Universal Soul, the Thought in the Soul, the Word, or Thought expressed; the Three In One, of a Trinitarian Ecossais."¹¹
According to Hutchens, the following pagan deities are mentioned in the ritual of the 31st degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction. (31st degree) "The Egyptian deities present in the hall are: (1) Osiris: the Lord and Judge of the dead; (2) Atum: called the 'Father of Souls'; (3) Ma: goddess of Truth and Justice whose image weighs upon one side of the balance; (4) Thoth: Scribe of the gods; (5) Anubis: Conductor of Souls; son of Osiris by his sister Nephthys; (6) Horus: son of Osiris, who presents the deceased to his father; (7) Isis: wife and sister of Osiris, mother of Horus; (8) Nephthys: sister of Isis and Osiris, mother of Anubis by Osiris; (9) Four sons of Horus: Kebhsenuf,Tua-mutef, Hapi and Amset.¹²
Pike even compared the Bible with the occultic Kabalah, which he apparently considered superior to the Bible.
All truly dogmatic religions have issued from the Kabalah and return to it: everything scientific and grand in the religious dreams of all the illuminati, Jacob Boehme, Swedenborg, Saint-Martin, and others, is borrowed from the Kabalah; all the Masonic associations owe to it their Secrets and their Symbols.
The Kabalah alone consecrates the alliance of the Universal Reason and the Divine Word; it establishes, by the counterpoises of two forces apparently opposite, the eternal balance of being; it alone reconciles Reason with Faith, Power with Liberty, Science with Mystery; it has the keys of the Present, the Past, and the Future.
The Bible, with all the allegories it contains, expresses, in an incomplete and veiled manner only, the religious science of the Hebrews.¹³
The SBC Report on Freemasonry correctly identifies these "recommended readings" as "undeniably pagan and/or occultic."¹⁴
Fourth Incompatibility: The reference to the Bible placed on the altar of the lodge as the "furniture of the lodge," comparing it to the square and compass rather than giving it the supreme place in the lodge.
Biblical Response: Albert Pike identified the Bible as part of the furniture of the lodge in his book Morals And Dogma Of The Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite Of Freemasonry. He wrote:
The Holy Bible, Square, and Compasses, are not only styled the Great Lights in Masonry, but they are also technically called the Furniture of the Lodge; and, as you have seen, it is held that there is no Lodge without them. This has sometimes been made a pretext for excluding Jews from our Lodges, because they cannot regard the New Testament as a holy book. The Bible is an indispensable part of the furniture of a Christian Lodge, only because it is the sacred book of the Christian religion. The Hebrew Pentateuch in a Hebrew Lodge, and the Koran in a Mohammedan one, belong on the Altar; and one of these, and the Square and Compass, properly understood, are the Great Lights by which a Mason must walk and work.¹⁵
Freemasonry has no commitment to the Bible as the unique Word of God. It happily substitutes non-Christian scriptures when Christians are not the majority of a lodge.
Fifth Incompatibility: The prevalent use of the term "light," which some may understand as a reference to salvation rather than knowledge or truth.
Biblical Response: In commenting on the Christian interpretation of the Blue degrees in Freemasonry, Pike wrote:
Notwithstanding the death of the Redeemer, man can be saved only by faith, repentance, and reformation.
Having repented and reformed, and bound himself to the service of God by a firm promise and obligation, the light of Christian hope shines down into the darkness of the heart of the humble penitent, and blazes upon his pathway to Heaven. And this is symbolized by the candidate's being brought to light, after he is obligated, by the Worshipful Master, who in that is a symbol of the Redeemer, and so brings him the light, with the help of the brethren, as He taught the Word with the aid of the Apostles.¹⁶
In the above quote, the concepts of light and salvation are closely related. This quote also reveals that many Masonic writers include reformation (good works) as one of the requirements for salvation. However, the Bible clearly states that good works are not a requirement for salvation. ¹⁷
Sixth Incompatibility: The implication that salvation may be attained by one's good works, implicit in the statement found in some Masonic writings that "Masonry is continually reminded of that purity of life and conduct which is necessary to obtain admittance into the Celestial Lodge above where the Supreme Architect of the Universe presides." Even though many Masons understand that the "purity of life and conduct" can only be achieved through faith in Jesus Christ, others may be led to believe they can earn salvation by living a pure life with good conduct.
Biblical Response: According to Pike, the 25th degree ". . . teaches the necessity of reformation as well as repentance, as a means of obtaining mercy and forgiveness, . . ."18 In his commentary on the 27th degree, Hutchens wrote: "Constans refuses the monk's arguments, trusting in a God of love who will recognize his honor and service to others as a noble path of salvation."19 Likewise, in concerning the 31st degree, Hutchens stated: "The candidate is brought into the Court of the Dead to be judged for actions while living and to determine if he deserves to dwell among the gods. His escort is Horus. Isis, Horus' mother, speaks first, inquiring whose ka has come to be judged."²⁰
The teaching that meritorious deeds can make one acceptable to God is common in many false religions. The Bible, however, warns that there is no deed that can make a sinner acceptable to God. Only the grace of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ can save those under the judgment of sin. The addition of works to faith as a requirement of salvation is contrary to the teaching of the Bible. The following Scriptures illustrate this: Romans 3:28:"For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." Romans 4:4-5:"Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness." Romans 11:6:"And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace." Ephesians 2:8-9:"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." Titus 3:5:"He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."
Seventh Incompatibility: The heresy of universalism (the belief all people will eventually be saved), which permeates the writings of many Masonic authors, which is a doctrine inconsistent with New Testament teaching.
Biblical Response: Many Masonic writings can be interpreted as endorsing universalism. Pike wrote, "It is the fine dream of the greatest of the Poets, that Hell, become useless, is to be closed at length, by the aggrandizement of Heaven; that the problem of Evil is to receive its final solution, and Good alone, necessary and triumphant, is to reign in Eternity."²¹
Even more prominent in Freemasonry is the false teaching of inclusivism, the belief that followers of non-Christian religions will also be saved. Freemasonry holds out the promise of salvation to all worthy Masons regardless of the deity they worship. The Muslim or Hindu member of the lodge is on the same spiritual level as the believer in Jesus Christ. According to Hutchens, "Masonry is tolerant, even supportive, of the most diverse religious beliefs."²²
Pike likewise argued that no religion can claim to have exclusivity to the truth, nor can any religion claim to be superior to another.
Toleration, holding that every other man has the same right to his opinion and faith that we have to ours; liberality, holding that as no human being can with certainty say, in the clash and conflict of hostile faiths and creeds, what is truth, or that he is surely in possession of it, so every one should feel that it is quite possible that another equally honest and sincere with himself, and yet holding the contrary opinion, may himself be in possession of the truth, and that whatever one firmly and conscientiously believes, is truth, to him."²³
Inclusivism denies the teaching of the New Testament that only those who place their faith in Jesus Christ will be saved. The following passages teach this biblical truth: John 3:36:"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." John 14:6: "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" Acts 4:12:"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." First Corinthians 3:11:"For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ." First Timothy 2:5:"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." First John 5:12:"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."
Eighth Incompatibility: The refusal of most lodges (although not all) to admit for membership African-Americans.
Biblical Response: The Bible teaches that all men and women are created in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." According to Genesis 9-11, all the races of humanity scattered throughout the world are made in the image of God. For example, Genesis 9:6 states, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." The context (Genesis 10- 11) reveals that this prohibition applies to all of the races of humanity scattered throughout the world.
The New Testament reveals that Jesus rejected the racism of His day. John 4:9 indicates that Jesus discarded the racial prejudices of the Jews towards the Samaritans. "The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?' (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)"The apostle Peter, who struggled with the sin of racism throughout his life, stated in Acts 10:28,"You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean." Racism should be rejected wherever it is found, whether it is discovered in the lodge or in the church.
Summary Statement on Freemasonry
There are eight major concerns that the Southern Baptist Convention has expressed about the teachings and practices of Freemasonry. These are:
(1) Freemasonry uses offensive, non-biblical, and blasphemous terms relating to God.
(2) Freemasonry insists on the use of "bloody oaths" or obligations, which are strictly forbidden by the Bible (cf. Matt. 5:34-37).
(3) Freemasonry urges that occultic and/or pagan readings be used, and that their teachings be appropriated in interpreting such concepts as the Trinity.
(4) Freemasonry includes the Bible as part of the "furniture of the lodge," but only as an equal with non-Christian symbols and writings.
(5) Freemasonry misuses the term "light" to refer to moral "reformation" as a means to salvation.
(6) Freemasonry teaches that salvation may be attained by "good works" and not through faith in Christ alone.
(7) Freemasonry advocates in many of its writings the non-biblical teachings of universalism.
(8) In some of its lodges, Freemasonry discriminates against nonwhites.
While it is clear that some Christians, moral persons, and outstanding government leaders have been and are members of the Freemasonic movement, several points of the lodge's teachings are non-biblical and non-Christian. And, while Freemasonry encourages and supports charitable activities, it contains both multireligious and inclusivistic teachings that are not Christian in its religious instruction.
Taking the above into consideration, and being consistent with our denomination's historic deep conviction regarding both the priesthood of the believer and the autonomy of the local church, we recommend that each individual Baptist, as well as each congregation, carefully review the issues of the teachings and practices of Freemasonry. Since, in the final analysis, the Bible alone is the only guide for faith and practice, issues related to Freemasonry and any other fraternal organization, especially secret societies, must be evaluated only in light of the plumb line of Scripture. The divinity and lordship of Christ, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, and salvation by grace through faith are foundational and nonnegotiable doctrines and the teachings of any organization or society in contradiction to such biblical tenets must be evaluated accordingly. It is, therefore, the duty of every Christian to resist and avoid false teachings to speak the truth in love and to embrace only those doctrines which are revealed in the inerrant Scripture, the Bible (see Matt. 7:24-27; John 7-10; 1 Cor. 10:14; Jude 3).
All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission.
Notes
¹ Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1993 (Nashville: Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention, 1993), p. 224.
² Ibid., p. 225.
³ Ibid., pp. 225-227 lists the following eight tenets of incompatibility.
⁴ This word has several alternative spellings.
⁵ Albert Pike, The Book of the Words (Kila, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing Co., n. d.), p. 151.While some Masons may disagree with Pike's explanation of the secret name for God they cannot deny the tremendous influence of Pike upon Freemasonry in the United States. A reading of A Bridge To Light (an official publication of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction) reveals that many modern Masonic leaders also confuse the God of the Bible with pagan deities. See A Bridge To Light, pp. 31, 120, 139.
⁶ The use of the word LORD with all capital letters indicates that the personal name of the God of Israel is used in the Hebrew text..0
⁷ Rex R. Hutchens, A Bridge To Light (Washington, D.C.: The Supreme Council, 1988), p. 299-302.
⁸ See Hebrews 4:15.
⁹ Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1993, p. 226.
¹⁰ Hutchens, A Bridge To Light, pp. 112-113.
¹¹ Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Richmond, Va.: L.H. Jenkins, Inc., 1942), p. 575.
¹² Hutchens, A Bridge To Light, p. 300.
¹³ Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 744.
¹⁴ Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1993, p. 226.
¹⁵ Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 11.
¹⁶ Ibid., p. 639, emphasis added.
¹⁷ See Romans 3:28; 4:4-5; 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-9;Titus 3:5.Also see the discussion in the biblical response concerning the sixth incompatibility.
¹⁸ Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 435.
¹⁹ Hutchens, A Bridge To Light, p. 243.
²⁰ Ibid., pp. 300-01.
²¹ Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 847.
²² Hutchens, A Bridge To Light, p. 67.
²³ Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 160.

Weiss Ressearch's Emergency Q&A Session

Dear Reader,
We have prepared this report for viewers of Weiss Research’s recent emergency Q&A session as a follow-up to the urgent questions asked by our readers.
(If you would like to review the video or share it with a friend, click here for the recording.
With events unfolding so quickly, we have organized this report in a way that helps get you to safety as quickly as possible. You can read the report from start to finish. Or if you click on the topics below, you can jump straight to our instructions and information on each.
1. How to Buy Treasury Bills or Equivalent
2. How to Use Your Treasury-Only Money Fund as a Bank
3. How to Set Up a Single, Safe Account  for Nearly All Your Savings and Checking
4. What To Do With Your 401k
5. How to Get Rid of Risky Stocks Despite What Your Broker May Say
6. What to Do About Your Not-So-Risky Stocks
7. More, Equally Urgent Information on Bear Markets
8. Want to Stick With Banks? Here Are the Risks
9. How To Find a Strong Bank
10. How Risky or Safe Is Your Insurance?
Plus, you can jump straight to our handy reference lists ...
11. Treasury-Only Money Market Funds
12. Weakest Banks and Thrifts in the U.S.
13. Strongest Banks and Thrifts in the U.S.
14. Weakest Life, Health and Annuity Insurers in the U.S.
15. Strongest Life, Health and Annuity Insurers in the U.S.
16. Select U.S. Brokers With Their Capital Multiples

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Follow-Up Information and Instructions for

(Watch video)

by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D., and Michael Larson

1. How to Buy Treasury Bills or Equivalent
Among all investments available in the world today, U.S. Treasury bills are the safest and most liquid place for your money. But please do not confuse Treasury bills with Treasury bonds:

• Treasury bills are short term — under one year.
• Treasury bonds are long term — up to 30 years.

The primary difference: The longer the maturity, the longer you have to wait for your money. If you don’t want to wait, you can sell your bonds (or “notes,” which are between one and 10 years) on the secondary market. But if inflation or other factors have driven down their market value, you will take a loss.
Three-month — or, more precisely, 13-week — Treasury bills don’t have that problem. The most you’ll have to wait is the three months and you can also cash them in at any time in-between. Any market fluctuations are infinitesimal and simply not an issue.
How do you buy Treasury bills? You can open an account directly with the U.S. Treasury Department, using your Social Security number or your business tax ID number via the Treasury Direct program.
But the most practical way to buy Treasury bills is through a money market fund that invests exclusively in short-term U.S. Treasury securities or equivalent. The Treasuries it buys enjoy the same guarantee from the U.S. government as Treasuries bought through any other venue.
Plus, the Treasury-only money fund gives you the additional advantage of immediate availability of your money. You can have your funds wired to your local bank overnight. Or you can even write checks against it, much as you’d write checks against any bank checking account.
Which fund? We use Capital Preservation Fund and the Weiss Treasury Only Money Market Fund. Or you can shop among the funds cited in our lists.
2. How to Use Your Treasury-Only Money Fund as a Bank
Traditional banking nowadays is not as easy as it appears.
To make sure all your money is insured, you may have to keep close tabs on multiple accounts. And even if you’re comfortably under the FDIC’s insurance limits, bank fees and charges can add up. Banks often charge for regular checking, low balances, writing too many checks, ATM withdrawals and bounced checks. And for businesses, they pay no interest on checking.
You can get better interest with CDs. But there, your liquidity — the access to your funds — is restricted by early withdrawal penalties: Federal law requires a minimum penalty of seven days’ interest for early withdrawal on any account classified as a time deposit, which includes CDs. And since the law doesn’t set a maximum penalty, banks are free to charge more, which they usually do. So it’s not unusual to see early withdrawal penalties of all your interest on 30-day CDs and up to six months’ interest on longer term CDs.
Our recommendation: Use your Treasury-only money market fund for most of your banking needs, including both savings and checking.
A Treasury-only money fund invests your money in short-term U.S. Treasury securities (plus other securities that are 100% backed by U.S. Treasuries). The fund uses a bank, but strictly as a custodian for the securities, and those accounts are completely segregated from the bank’s deposits or assets. Even if the custodian bank fails, your money invested in short-term Treasuries through the fund — and your access to that money — is not affected.
Here’s the key: The Treasury-only money fund provides you with check-writing privileges so that you can use the money fund as your personal or business checking account. Here are the advantages:
Advantage #1. Yield. Treasury-only money funds have generally yielded substantially more than the yield offered on the average personal checking account in the U.S.
The contrast for business is even greater: Since banks do not pay interest on business checking accounts, Treasury-only money funds invariably give you more yield. Plus, you can also take better advantage of the “float” — the
funds remaining in your account while checks written against them have not
yet cleared. And unlike bank checking accounts, you don’t have to worry if your balances are over a certain limit. The bigger your balances, the better.
Just remember: In times of acute crisis, when there is a rush to escape financial risk and buy Treasury bills, your yield could be very low. But low yield is the price you pay for maximum safety, and it’s worth every penny.
Advantage #2. Low Fees. When a bank quotes you yields — on any kind of account — it always quotes you the yields before deducting all its various service fees. And with bank charges and fees currently at high levels, it’s almost impossible for most bank customers to collect anything near the advertised yield.
In contrast, when a Treasury-only money fund (or any money fund, for that matter) quotes you its yield, it is invariably after deducting its fees and expenses. Of course, the past or current yield is no guarantee of future results. But the yield quoted is the net yield that investors in the fund are actually earning.
How much of a difference can this make? In most cases, a significant one. Indeed, we figure that, after deducting myriad bank fees, most Americans today are getting a net yield of close to zero on their accounts, while many wind up losing money.
Advantage #3. One Account for Both Checking and Savings. At banks, most customers find they need to divide their money between (a) a checking account, where they give up most of their yield, and (b) a savings account or CD, where they give up immediate access and liquidity. No matter what, it’s almost impossible to get both optimal liquidity and the better yield in the same bank account.
In contrast, Treasury-only money funds let you keep nearly all of your cash assets — whether for savings or for checking — in one single account. This means that whether you’re investing $1,000 or $1 million,

• You have complete access to all your funds at all times.

• You can withdraw the entire amount, with no penalty whatsoever. Just write a check or request a wire transfer, and it’s done.

• Your money consistently earns competitive, current market yields.

• You never have to worry about leaving too much in your checking account at low or zero yield. The full amount is available for checking at all times, earning full interest.

• You continue earning interest on your money up until the moment your check clears. The longer it takes for your payees to cash their checks, the more interest you earn.

Advantage #4. No Limit to Your Account Size. When you use banks for your savings or checking, you have to go through a series of contortions to keep your money safe from failure:

• In each CD, you have to make sure your initial investment is comfortably below the coverage limit. Otherwise, the accumulation of accrued interest could put your balance over the limit, and that portion would not be covered by the FDIC.

• You may have to spread your CDs among various accounts.

• With a large checking account, you would have to call your bank almost daily to make sure it’s not over the FDIC limit. Reason: If there are several big checks outstanding, your bank balance could be over the limit; and if the bank fails at that time, any excess amount in your account could be in jeopardy.

With Treasury-only money funds, insurance is a moot point. Your funds are invested strictly in securities that are guaranteed directly by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury Department. And there is no limit on the Treasury’s guarantee of its obligations — whether you’re a beginning saver with just a few thousand or you’re a Bill Gates with billions.
Advantage #5. Exempt From Local and State Taxes. The income you earn on both Treasury-only money funds and bank accounts is subject to federal income taxes. So there’s no difference between bank deposits and Treasury-only money funds in that regard.
However, when it comes to local and state income taxes, there is a significant difference:

• The dividends you earn on Treasury-only money funds are generally exempt from local and state income taxes. But ...

• The income earned on bank accounts and CDs is not exempt from local and state income taxes.

Advantage #6. Truly Free Checking. Nearly all banks charge you — one way or another — for your checking privileges. They may charge you a fee for each check you write. They may charge you a flat monthly service fee. Or they may charge you a combination of both.
Sometimes banks say they’re giving you “free checking,” but require large minimum balances, paying little or no interest. No matter what, you’re paying for checking — and probably too much.
Most Treasury-only money funds do not charge you any extra fee for check-writing privileges. You can write as many checks as you want, as often as you want. When they say “free checking privileges,” they really mean it.
This is not true for all Treasury-only money funds, however. And some do levy certain charges for special services. That’s to be expected. But those fees are almost always lower than the charges at banks.
Advantage #7. Immediate Liquidity. As with any financial institution, there will be a holding period for the out-of-town checks you deposit to your account. But your money goes to work for you right away, generating interest income immediately. And if you deposit your money via wire transfer, you can avoid the holding period; your funds will be available immediately.
In short, except for the holding period, all of the funds received by your Treasury-only money fund are available to you all of the time. There are four ways you can withdraw your money from your Treasury-only money fund:

• You can write a check against the balance in your account — to yourself or to another payee.

• You can call or send a fax to your money fund’s shareholder services department, giving them instructions to issue a wire transfer. (Before the fund can accept your wire instructions, however, you will need to have a signed authorization on file. This can be done when you open your account.)

• You can request a check be sent to you directly from the fund. You can also authorize telephone instructions for redemption by check when you open your account.

• You can establish a systematic program to automatically send a set amount to you monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

One small, annoying disadvantage: Most money funds impose a minimum amount for each check, usually $50 or $100. So you may need a small local checking account for checks under their minimum.
3. How to Set Up a Single, Safe Account for Nearly All Your Savings and Checking
 Whether you are an active investor or not, whether you have a lot of money set aside or just small amounts, we recommend these steps:
Step 1. Decide what type of account you want to open. For your personal checking account, it could be established as an individual, joint, custodian, or trust. (In addition, you can also use your Treasury-only money fund to open a separate account for your IRA or other retirement accounts.)
Step 2. Select a Treasury-only money market fund.
Step 3. On its website, or while you’re on the phone with its customer service department, get answers to a few questions about the costs associated with check-writing privileges:

• “How many checks will you provide for me at no charge?” For personal accounts, at least the first 20 or 25 checks should be free. If you want additional checks, it’s reasonable to expect a printing charge, but it should be minimal.

• “Will you charge me a per-check transaction fee?” If the answer is yes and you anticipate a relatively active account, don’t do business with this fund.

• “What is the minimum dollar amount for which I can make out each of my checks?” It should be no more than $100.

• “What is the minimum balance that I must maintain in my account, and will you penalize me if my balance falls below the minimum?” If the minimum is too high for you or if there is a penalty, look elsewhere.

• “Do you accept deposits of second-party checks?” If the answer is no, this may not be the right fund for this plan.

Step 4. Download the prospectus and application from the fund’s website. Then read them carefully before investing. Or you can also ask the fund to send the materials via first-class mail.
Step 5. If you are not sure about what forms and documents you will need to submit to open an account, now is the time to ask. Some typical types of accounts, along with the documentation needed, are:
Type 1. Individual or joint account, minor custodian account: You’ll need the application and the signature card (indicate the number of signatures that will be required to cash a check).
Joint accounts, unless you specify otherwise, will probably be opened as joint tenants with rights of survivorship (JTWROS), meaning that the entire account balance will pass to the survivor in case one of the joint owners dies.
If you want the account to be registered as joint tenants in common (JTIC), be sure to specify that in writing when you open the account. JTIC means that each person owns a set percentage of the account; and if one person dies, his or her percentage does not automatically go to the survivor, but goes into the deceased’s estate to be distributed.
If you wish a custodian account for a minor child (UGMA), don’t forget to use the child’s Social Security number for correct IRS reporting.
Type 2. Trust or guardianship: You will need the application and the signature card (indicate the number of signatures needed to cash a check). Plus, you will need certified copies of the appropriate trust documents or court papers appointing a guardian and any power of attorney forms, if applicable. Hint: Put the trustee name(s) first on the account registration to reduce the paperwork that would be needed whenever an account transaction is requested. Example: Jane S. Doe, TTEE Doe Family Trust.
Type 3. IRA, Roth IRA, or other retirement account or rollover: Ask for the IRA or retirement plan application and agreement. This information should
include a new account application, a transfer authorization and a rollover certification form.
If you’re opening a new retirement account, fill out the new account application only.
If you’re transferring a retirement account directly between custodians, fill out both the application and the transfer authorization. Also be sure to include a copy of the most recent statement from your current custodian.
If it’s an IRA rollover and you have a distribution from a retirement account that you are going to transfer to the Treasury-only money fund, fill out both the new account application and the rollover certification form. (Important: Due to IRS regulations, check writing is not possible on IRA accounts.)
Step 6. With the above documents, also provide the basic wiring instructions to the fund. If there is no space on the application, put the following information in a separate, signed letter:

• Your bank’s name, city and state
• Your bank’s “ABA” number
• Your bank’s wire transfer account number
• Your account number at the bank
• All registered names on the account

Note: The account title on your bank account should be the same as the title on your Treasury-only money fund account.
Step 7. Don’t forget to sign the application. Then make your first deposit check payable to the Treasury-only money fund and mail it with your new account materials. You should receive written confirmation of your deposit in the mail within a few days and a checkbook within about two weeks.
Step 8. Keep only a minimal amount in your local bank for petty cash and small, occasional checks.
Step 9. Use a major credit card for as many of your purchases as possible. Then, in order to avoid any interest charges, pay off your credit card, in full,
each month with one check written from your Treasury-only money fund.
Step 10. To maximize your total safety and liquidity, transfer the bulk of your cash funds to the Treasury-only money fund account. These can include any investment funds you wish to keep liquid and available for upcoming opportunities, as well as most of your regular spending money and most of your keep-safe savings.
Step 11. Write all of your checks that are above the fund’s per-check minimum from the Treasury-only money fund account. These could include
checks for paying your mortgage, rent, monthly credit card bills, utility bills and any large purchases at establishments that give you a better price for non-credit card purchases.
Step 12. If you need a large amount of cash or want to buy traveler’s checks, just call your Treasury-only money fund and give them instructions to transfer the money to your local bank. In most cases, if you call before 3 PM Eastern Time, you should have the funds in your account the next business day.
Step 13. At most funds, you may deposit your salary and any checks payable to you directly into your account. Just endorse the checks with your signature on the reverse side and include the words “for deposit to,” followed by your account number at the fund. Then simply mail your deposit to the fund. (You may use the deposit slip and envelope that most funds provide you with your monthly statement.)
As always, do not send cash in the mail. If you have cash deposits, make them at your local bank and then send the funds to your Treasury-only money fund via either a check or wire transfer.
If you want to know if your check has cleared your fund and you don’t want to wait for the written confirmation in the mail, just call the fund’s shareholder services at its toll-free number.
You will receive monthly statements from the fund showing all your checking transactions, plus any other activity including deposits, dividend income credits, etc. (Note: Canceled checks are not usually returned to you automatically, unless you specifically ask for them.)
That’s it! With these steps, you will now have superior safety overall, significantly greater effective yields, greatly reduced bank charges and maximum liquidity.
4. What To Do With Your 401k
Many people confuse two separate questions:

• The first and most urgent question is: What investments do you own?

• The second question is: What the kind of account are you using to buy those investments?

Let’s begin with the investments: With the exception of certain kinds of accounts guaranteed by insurers or others, if your investments are going down in value, you risk losing money regardless of what kind of account you have them in.
And based just on what we’ve seen so far, depending on what investment choices you made, your retirement could be cut half — or worse. Therefore, we disagree with those who recommend you hold the stock mutual funds in your 401k and just keep buying more on the way down. You cannot afford that risk. Instead, follow these steps ...
Step 1. Get from your employer or 401k manager the list of options available in your 401k.
Step 2. Pick out the safest one, as follows:

• First choice: Treasury-only money market fund. (Unfortunately, these are rarely offered in 401ks.)

• Second choice: A government-only money market fund, if your 401k has one. If not ...

• Third choice: A standard money market fund.

• Fourth choice: An income or bond fund that invests exclusively in U.S. government notes and bonds and nothing in corporate bonds.

• Fifth choice: An income or bond fund that invests mostly in U.S. government notes and bonds and as little as possible in corporate bonds.

In sum, favor government paper over corporate or bank paper, and favor short term over long term.
Step 3. Shift all of your money to the safest fund. If you’re concerned the market has just plunged and you are selling at the wrong time, shift 50% immediately and the balance when the stock market enjoys a rally.
This is not a permanent solution. Later, when the dust has settled and the coast is clear, you can start shifting back to equities. But at this point, no one knows where the bottom in the market might be. So it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Step 4. Unless you may be short of cash, continue adding to your 401k normally. Just make sure all new funds are invested in the safest choice you selected in Step 2. In this way, you can continue to take advantage of your company’s matching program and your money can continue to grow without the drag of taxes.
Follow the same general approach with IRAs, 529 savings plans and other tax-protected plans. These offer the additional advantage of allowing you to buy short-term Treasuries or a Treasury-only money market fund.
5. How to Get Rid of Risky Stocks
Despite What Your Broker May Say
If you haven’t done so already in response to our many earlier warnings, you’d better sell — or hedge against — your risky stocks now. If you don’t, be prepared to suffer far deeper losses.
One way is to ignore what everyone thinks or says, call your broker and issue one, four-letter instruction: “SELL.”
Sound too simple? Perhaps. But compared to sitting back passively and letting your retirement be destroyed by a long or deep bear market, it’s actually the lesser of the evils.
Worried that you may be selling at exactly the wrong time? Then, as with your 401k, sell half at the market, reducing your exposure to risk immediately. Next, wait for an intermediate rally to sell the balance.
But beware: No matter how much you seek to sell or when, most brokers will try to talk you out of it. They have a hidden agenda. They want to keep
you as a customer; and they know that, once customers sell their stocks, they often close their brokerage accounts.
With this in mind, many brokers have been trained with up to seven sales pitches designed to keep you in the market come hell or high water.
Broker Pitch #1: “Buy more.” Their argument goes something like this: “Your stock is now selling at bargain prices. So if you didn’t already own 100 shares, you’d probably be thinking about buying — not selling. Instead, why not double down and take advantage of dollar-cost averaging?”
The more likely result in a bear market: Every time your stock falls by another $1 per share, instead of losing just $100, you’ll be losing $200.
Broker Pitch #2: “Hold for a recovery!” They argue that the “market will inevitably recover,” that the “recovery is always bigger and better than any near-term decline,” and that you should therefore “always invest for the long term.”
The reality: Bear markets can last for many years. It could take still longer for the averages to recover to current levels. During all those years, your money is dead in the water. And don’t forget: If the company goes out of business, your stock will be worthless and will never recover.
Broker Pitch #3: “You can’t afford to take a loss.” If you insist on selling, brokers often come back with this approach: “Your losses are just on paper right now. So if you sell, all you’ll be doing is locking them in. You can’t afford to do that.”
What they don’t tell you is that there is no fundamental difference between a paper loss and a realized loss. Nor do they reveal that the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) requires brokers themselves to value the securities they hold in their own portfolio at the current market price — to recognize the losses as real whether they’ve sold the securities or not.
Broker Pitch #4: “You can’t afford to take a profit and pay the taxes.” If you’ve got a profit in a stock, they say: “All you’ll be doing is writing a fat check to Uncle Sam. You can’t afford to do that.”
The reality: Although it’s not shown on your brokerage statement, the true value of your portfolio is net of taxes. So whether you or your heirs pay those taxes now or in the future is mostly a difference of timing. And if our
next president approves legislation to raise capital gains taxes next year, it could actually cost you more. Besides, which would you prefer — paying some taxes on profits or paying no taxes on losses?
Broker Pitch #5: The “don’t be a fool” argument. “Stocks look very cheap now and we’re very close to rock bottom,” goes the script. “We may even be right at the bottom. If you sell now, three months from now, you’ll be kicking yourself. Don’t be a fool.”
The truth: Brokers don’t have the faintest idea where the bottom is. Nor does anyone at their firm. And they know darn well that stocks do not hit bottom just because they look cheap. Worse, for their own accounts, brokers and their affiliates have been — and are likely to continue — liquidating shares, often targeting precisely the same shares they pitch to their customers.
Broker Pitch #6: “The market is turning.” If the market enjoys an intermediate bounce, which it certainly will at some point soon, this pitch is invoked. “Look at this big rally!” they say. “Your shares are finally starting to come back. After waiting all this time, are you sure you want to run away now — just when things are starting to turn around in your favor?”
The truth: In a bear market, intermediate rallies actually give you the best opportunity to sell. Often, they’re stimulated by government efforts to bail out companies or stimulate the economy. If so, those can be even better selling opportunities.
Broker Pitch #7: The last ace-in-the hole in the broker’s arsenal of pitches is the patriotic approach. “Do you realize,” they’ll say, “what could happen if everyone does what you’re talking about doing? That’s when the market would really nosedive. But if you and millions of other investors would just have a bit more faith in our economy — in our country — then the market will recover and everyone will come out ahead.”
The truth: Locking up precious capital in sinking enterprises is not exactly good for our country. Better to safeguard the funds and reinvest them in better opportunities at a better time.
6. What to Do About Your Not-So-Risky Stocks
Not all stocks are created equal. In a prolonged bear market,

• some fall more than the stock averages,
• some fall less, and ...
• a very small number of stocks can actually buck the trend, moving higher as the rest of the market falls.

If you have stocks that your money manager or broker insist are in the latter two categories, and he makes a strong case for holding them, then it may make sense to do so.
But even with these special situations, you still could be vulnerable to significant losses for four reasons:

• Investors need cash and sell even the best stocks to raise funds ...

• Investors suffer large losses in the rest of their portfolio and take profits in their best stocks to help offset the loss ...

• Fear overcomes logic and investors throw out the baby with the bathwater, and/or ...

• Deflation drives down the price of all assets, including the best stocks.

Each or all of these situations can drive down the value of your stocks, no matter how good the companies may be. Therefore, if you’ve decided to hold them, you will need a hedge — an investment that’s designed to go up when stocks go down.
There are four vehicles available for hedging your stock portfolio. Here they are, listed from least risky to most risky:

• Buying inverse ETFs. This is recommended for most investors who decide to continue holding stocks in their portfolio despite a bear market.

• Spending small amounts of money on put options. This is recommended for investors with some risk capital available.

• Selling short individual stocks. Not recommended.

• Selling short stock futures. Not recommended.

For detailed instructions on inverse ETFs and how to use them, our free report, How to Protect Your Stock Portfolio From the Spreading Credit Crunch, is currently available for your immediate download.
7. More, Equally Urgent Information on Bear Markets
For more free information on bear market strategies that’s equally urgent, refer to:

• Bear Market Defense Forum Part 1 and Part II, 10-01-08. “The spreading financial crisis has us in the clutches of a tough bear market in stocks ... In the second part of this presentation, we discuss the Weiss Bear Strategy.”

• Last Chance for the Truth, 9-28-08. “You cannot wait to see how long Wall Street’s celebration will last or how soon Washington’s plan will fail. You must take protective action now.”

• No Bailout May Be Big Enough to Bring a Quick End to This Bear Market, 9-22-08. “Bust follows boom in financial markets like night follows day.”

• Warning: Nasty Surprises Coming Next Week, 9-21-08. Brace yourself for “a few nasty surprises, shocks and wake-up calls coming as early as next week: The fear factor. The selling stampede ...”

• Washington declares war on debt crisis! Urgent Q&A, 9-19-08. “Is this the signal to jump back into stocks? No. For stocks that are vulnerable to a credit crisis and an economic decline, this is a signal to SELL. And for those who are looking for a hedge or profit opportunity for the next big decline, this is an ideal opportunity to get started.”

• Dow plunges 504! Here’s what’s next, 9-15-08. “You’ll soon hear the Wall Street pundits arguing that this is the ‘climactic capitulation’ that will end the decline. Don’t fall for it! In reality, the Dow is still not far from its all-time peaks, with a lot further to fall. Our forecast is unchanged: 7200 on the Dow.”

• Unthinkable Truth; Undeniable Reality, 7-28-08. “They’d have you believe they can outlaw the cycle of boom and bust ... repeal the law of supply and demand ... even freeze the march of time. In the real world, of course, no government in history has ever been able to do anything of the kind, and they know it. Why? Because, behind the façade of their feel-good happy talk and beneath the thin veneer of their Pollyanna optimism, nearly every single one of our leaders — including Bernanke and Paulson, Democrats and Republicans — is really a gloom-and-doom pessimist in disguise.”
  

• The Great American Nightmare, 7-21-08. “This is the first stage of the dangerous bear market we’ve been warning you about.”

• How to Prepare for the NEXT Panic, 7-07-08. “‘When another collapse is about to begin,’ Dad warned, ‘they’re not going to ring any bells. Few investors will see it coming, fewer still will take protective action, and almost everyone will get caught in the melee. Don’t let that happen to our subscribers!’ But today, the bells are finally ringing and doing so loudly.”

8. Want to Stick With Banks? Here Are the Risks
When a bank goes under, the FDIC steps in, finds a merger partner or takes it over. This can be a quick process. But sometimes it may not be. We see three possible situations:
Situation #1. You are a shareholder in a bank that’s failing. In this situation, you will probably lose all or most of your money whether the government tries to bail the bank out or it’s allowed to fail and is taken over by the FDIC.
Situation #2. You are an insured depositor. You’ve got savings or checking accounts with the bank and they are under the FDIC insurance limit. In normal times, even if your bank fails, your savings should be secure and available at any time.
However, in the event of a national bank holiday, even if your bank has not failed, you may be denied access to most or all of your funds for an unknown period of time. We hope that time period would be very short — just a few days. But it could be more, or it could happen more than once.
Situation #3. You have deposits with a bank that are over and beyond the FDIC insurance limits. Or you have bought bank bonds or bank debentures. In most bank failures, you will suffer losses. And even with so-called “too-big-to-fail” banks, you could suffer severe losses as well. Do not count on the government to cover uninsured deposits, bonds or other debts.
To reduce your risk, avoid bank stocks and bank debentures or bonds. Keep your deposits under the FDIC insurance limit. And put the bulk of your funds in short-term Treasury securities bought directly from the U.S. Treasury Department or through a Treasury-only money market fund.
And for double protection, if you must do business with a bank, always use a strong institution regardless of insurance protection or other guarantees.
9. How To Find a Strong Bank
Step 1. First, become familiar with this ratings scale:
A = excellent
B = good
C = fair
D = weak
E = very weak
+ = the upper third of each grade range
- = the lower third of each grade range
Step 2. Find your bank in our list of Weakest Banks and Thrifts in the U.S. or in our list of Strongest Banks and Thrifts in the U.S. For your convenience, they are listed in alphabetical order. Or you can use a search function on your screen (such as the F4 key in MS Internet Explorer or the “Find” function in Adobe Reader).
Step 3. If you cannot find your bank or thrift in one of our lists below ...

• Go to www.TheStreet.com.

• At the home page, in the menus in the upper right, you’ll see the item “PORTFOLIO & TOOLS.” Pull down that menu and select “Banks & Thrifts Screener.”

• This will take you to a new page with the bank screener, and you’ll see a box on the left-hand side to fill in your bank information. To narrow the search, type in the state if you have it. Then, under Bank name, type in strictly the FIRST name of the bank with no spaces. (If you type in more than the first name, the program will probably not find your bank.)

• A list of banks with their ratings should appear to the right of the data entry box.

Step 4.When you have your bank’s rating, follow these guidelines:

• If your bank is rated B- or higher, it implies your bank’s relative safety is “good” or better.

• If your bank is rated D+ or lower, it’s a red flag. Seriously consider moving your money elsewhere, while weighing the cost of any interest penalties. For uninsured deposits, the interest penalty is a small price to pay for safety. For insured deposits, it will depend on how much you value your peace of mind.

• If your bank is rated C-, C or C+, it’s a yellow flag. Monitor the rating every three months or so to make sure it has not been downgraded below C- (to D+ or lower).

Step 5. If you’re shopping for a new bank, favor institutions with a rating of B+ or better. Refer to our list of the Strongest Banks and Thrifts in the U.S. Or ...

• Return to Bank and Thrift Screener,

• Under State, select your state,

• Under Rating, select B,

• To the right of the rating, select “or higher,”

• Then, on the list to the right, under “display,” set the number of banks to be listed to 100.

• From the list displayed to the right, look for banks with a rating of B+ or better. You may see some that you know have a branch near your home or place of work. Or search for the bank at Google Maps.

10. How Risky or Safe Is Your Insurance?
The risk you take with an insurance policy depends on two things: The type of policy you have and the relative strength or weakness of the insurance company. So here are the steps to follow ...
Step 1. Determine which broad category of policy you have. Generally speaking, there are three:

• Cash-value policy. These are the most affected by the failure of the insurer. They include fixed annuities and whole life, sometimes called universal life. Your funds go into the insurance company’s own balance sheet, and if their balance sheet goes down, your savings can go down with it.

• Variable annuities or variable life. Your money does not become a part of the insurance company’s portfolio. Instead, it goes into separate accounts. Like in a 401k, your money is actually invested in mutual funds. And like the 401k, you should check which funds you currently have, check their menu of choices and switch to the safest ones.

• Term insurance — life, health, auto, home, etc. Your risk is greatly reduced because you’re paying strictly for the insurance. Your savings are not tied up.

Step 2. Become familiar with the rating scale below:
A = excellent
B = good
C = fair
D = weak
E = very weak
+ = the upper third of each grade range
- = the lower third of each grade range
Step 3. Find your insurer in our list of Weakest Health, Life and Annuity Insurers in the U.S. or in our list of Strongest Health, Life and Annuity Insurers in the U.S. For your convenience, they are listed in alphabetical order. Or you can just use the search function on your screen.
Step 4. Our lists do not include property and casualty insurers. Nor do they include very small insurers or those that are rated “fair” (C+, C and C-). So if you cannot find your insurer in one of the lists below:

• Go to www.TheStreet.com.

• On the home page menus in the upper right, you’ll see an item called “PORTFOLIO & TOOLS.” Pull down that menu and select “Insurers and HMOs Screener.”

• This will take you to a new page with the insurer screener, and you’ll see a box on the left-hand side to fill in the needed information.

• Under Company Type, select ...

• Life & Health — for life, health and annuity insurers

• Property & Casualty — for auto, home or business insurance

• HMOs — for Health Maintenance Organizations

• Then, under Insurer name, type in strictly the FIRST name of the insurer with no spaces.

• A list of insurers plus their ratings should appear to the right of the data entry box.

Step 5. When you have your insurance company’s rating, follow these guidelines:

• If your insurer is rated B- or higher, it implies no further action is needed under normal circumstances.

• If your insurer is rated D+ or lower, it’s a red flag. Unless you must have the coverage and your personal situation would disqualify you from an alternate policy, seriously consider canceling the policy and, if you still need the insurance, shifting to another company. In tax-protected plans, make sure your agent helps you make the transfer without tax consequences.

• If your insurer is rated C-, C or C+, it’s a yellow flag. Monitor the rating periodically to make sure it has not been downgraded below C- (D+ or lower).

Important: No matter what kind of policy you have, seek to do business only with strong insurers. Reason: If your insurer fails and you have to switch to a new company, you may not be able to get a similar policy or, if your situation has changed, you may not qualify for the insurance.
Step 6. If you’re shopping for a new insurance company, favor those with a rating of B+ or better. Refer to the Strongest Life, Health and Annuity Insurers in the U.S. Or ...

1. Return to Insurers and HMOs Screener
   
   
2. Under Company Type, select:
   
   
• Life & Health — for life, health and annuity insurers
• Property & Casualty — for auto, home and business insurance
• HMOs — for Health Maintenance Organizations
  
  
3. Under Rating, select B
   
   
4. To the right of the rating, select “or higher”
   
   
5. On the list to the right, under “display,” set the number of insurers to be listed to 100.
   
   
6. From the list displayed to the right, look for insurers with a rating of B+ or better. Most insurers are licensed to do business in many states. So you are not restricted to insurers that are domiciled in your state.

Important: Beware of the many pitfalls in long-term care insurance. We have received a multitude of questions from readers on this topic. They ask: “Who will care for them in their golden years? How will they cover the cost? Is long-term care insurance really such a good deal as salespeople say it is? For the answers download our free special report, Weiss Research’s Step-by-Step Guide to Long-Term Care.
11. Treasury-Only Money Market Funds

Fund Name	Toll-Free No.	Web Address
ABN AMRO Treas MMF/Common Cl	(800) 992-8151	http://www.astonasset.com/
AllianceBernstein Treasury Reserves	(800) 251-0539	www.alliancebernstein.com
American Century Capital Presv Fund	(800) 345-2021	www.americancentury.com
American Performance US Treas	(800) 762-7085	www.apfunds.com
BB&T US Treas MMF/Trust Shrs	(800) 228-1872	www.bbtfunds.com
BBH US Treasury MMF	(800) 625-5759	www.bbh.com
BNY Hamilton Treas MF/Hamltn Classic	(800) 426-9363	www.bnyhamiltonfunds.com
CitiFunds Premium US Treas Resvs	(800) 846-5200	www.citibank.com
CitiFunds US Treasury Reserves	(800) 846-5200	www.citibank.com
DWS US Treasury Money Fund	(800) 621-1048	https://www.dws-scudder.com
Dreyfus 100% US Treasury MMF	(888) 782-6620	www.dreyfus.com
Dreyfus US Treas Reserves/ Cl R	(888) 782-6620	www.dreyfus.com
Evergreen Treasury MMF/Cl A	(800) 343-2898	evergreeninvestments.com
Fidelity US Treasury MMF	(800) 343-3548	www.fidelity.com
Fifth Third US Treas MMF	(800) 282-5706	https://www.53.com
First Amer Treas Oblig/Cl D - Corpt	(800) 677-FUND	www.firstamericanfunds.com
Gabelli US Treasury MMF	(800) 422-3554	www.gabelli.com
Capital One US Treasury MMF	(800) 999-0426	www.capitalone.com
Huntington US Treas MMF/Trust	(800) 253-0412	www.huntingtonfunds.com
JPMorgan 100% US Treas Sec. MMF	(800) 480-4111	www.jpmorganfunds.com
Reserve Fund/US Treas Fund	(800) 637-1700	www.reservefunds.com
RMK Select Treasury MMF	(877) 757-7424	www.regions.com
Schwab US Treasury Money Fund	(866) 232-9890	www.schwab.com
SEI Liquid Asset Tr/Treas Secs/Cl A	(800) 342-5734	www.seic.com
Sentinel US Treasury MMF	(800) 282-3863	www.sentinelfunds.com
T. Rowe Price US Treasury Money Fund	(800) 541-6066	www.troweprice.com
US Treasury Money Fund of America	(800) 421-0180	www.americanfunds.com
US Treasury Securities Cash Fund	(800) 873-8637	www.usfunds.com
Vanguard Admiral Treasury MMF	(800) 662-7447	www.vanguard.com
Vanguard Treasury MMF	(800) 662-7447	www.vanguard.com
Weiss Treasury Only MMF	(800) 242-8092	www.tommf.com
Wells Fargo 100% Treas MMF	(800) 222-8222	www.wellsfargo.com
Wells Fargo Treas Plus MMF/Class A	(800) 222-8222	www.wellsfargo.com

12. Weakest Banks and Thrifts in the U.S.
Distributed by: Weiss Research, Inc., www.MoneyandMarkets.com
Source of Financial Strength Ratings: TheStreet.com Ratings, www.TheStreet.com.
Data source: FDIC’s Call Reports and OTS’ Thrift Financial Reports, June 30, 2008.
Selection criteria for the table below: U.S. commercial banks, savings banks, S&Ls and other thrifts with total assets of $500 million or more and with a rating of D+ or lower.

Name	City	State	TheStreet.com Rating	Total Assets ($Millions)
1st Centennial Bk	Redlands	CA	E	$762
1st United Bk	Boca Raton	FL	D	$563
Advantage Bk	Cambridge	OH	D+	$1,026
Affinity Bk	Ventura	CA	D-	$1,232
Alliance Bank	Lake City	MN	D	$680
Alliance Bk	Culver City	CA	E+	$1,119
Alliance Bk Corp	Fairfax	VA	D	$569
Allstate Bk	Vernon Hills	IL	D+	$923
Amboy Bank	Old Bridge	NJ	D-	$2,642
Amcore Bk NA	Rockford	IL	D-	$5,133
American Bk	St Paul	MN	D	$630
American Bk	Rockville	MD	D+	$505
American Bk North	Nashwauk	MN	D+	$639
American Bk of Commerce	Wolfforth	TX	D	$686
American Founders Bk Inc	Frankfort	KY	D-	$509
American River Bk	Sacramento	CA	D	$579
Americanwest Bk	Spokane	WA	D-	$2,107
Ameriprise Bank, FSB	New York	NY	D-	$1,443
Amtrust Bank	Cleveland	OH	D-	$15,897
Anchor MSB	Aberdeen	WA	D+	$629
Anchorbank FSB	Madison	WI	D-	$4,813
Avidia Bank	Hudson	MA	D	$953
Baltimore County Svgs Bk FSB	Baltimore	MD	D+	$589
Banco Popular North America	New York	NY	D	$12,871
Banco Santander PR	San Juan	PR	D	$8,659
Bank of Blue Valley	Overland Park	KS	D-	$790
Bank of Choice	Evans	CO	D-	$563
Bank of Choice Colorado	Arvada	CO	D-	$624
Bank of East Asia USA NA	New York	NY	D-	$772
Bank of Florida-Southwest	Naples	FL	D	$702
Bank of Granite	Granite Falls	NC	D-	$1,158
Bank of the Cascades	Bend	OR	D-	$2,441
BankAtlantic	Fort Lauderdale	FL	D	$6,294
BankUnited FSB	Coral Gables	FL	D-	$14,164
Baraboo NB	Baraboo	WI	D-	$707
Barclays Bank Delaware	Wilmington	DE	D	$7,670
Baylake Bk	Sturgeon Bay	WI	D	$1,079
Beach Community Bk	Fort Walton Bch	FL	D-	$692
BLC Bank, NA	Strasburg	PA	D	$3,654
BPD Bk	New York	NY	D	$656
Bradford Bank	Baltimore	MD	D-	$518
Bridgeview Bk Group	Bridgeview	IL	D+	$1,377
Broadway Bk	Chicago	IL	D+	$1,154
Buckhead Community Bk	Atlanta	GA	D-	$921
Builders Bk	Chicago	IL	D-	$520
CapitalSouth Bank	Birmingham	AL	E	$737
Carolina Bk	Greensboro	NC	D+	$567
Central Co-Op Bk	Somerville	MA	D+	$564
Central IL Bk	Champaign	IL	D+	$501
Central Pacific Bk	Honolulu	HI	D	$5,637
Century Bk FSB	Sarasota	FL	D-	$920
Chevy Chase Bk FSB	McLean	VA	D	$14,820
ChinaTrust Bk USA	Torrance	CA	D+	$2,713
Citibank NA	Las Vegas	NV	D+	$1,228,445
Citizens Bkg Co	Sandusky	OH	D+	$1,105
Citizens Financial Bank	Hammond	IN	D+	$1,102
Citizens First Svg BK	Port Huron	MI	D-	$2,070
Cole Taylor Bk	Chicago	IL	D	$3,709
College Svgs Bk	Princeton	NJ	D-	$608
Colorado East B&T	Lamar	CO	D+	$747
Columbia River Bk	The Dalles	OR	D+	$1,108
Columbian B&TC	Topeka	KS	F	$735
Community B&TC	Sheboygan	WI	D+	$602
Community Bk	Loganville	GA	E-	$628
Community Bk of Nevada	Las Vegas	NV	D+	$1,636
Community Central BK	Mt Clemens	MI	D-	$531
Community South Bk	Parsons	TN	D+	$634
Community West Bk	Goleta	CA	D	$648
Conestoga Bank	Chester Springs	PA	D-	$728
Corus Bk NA	Chicago	IL	D-	$8,984
Countrywide Bank, FSB	Alexandria	VA	D-	$116,364
County Bk	Merced	CA	E+	$2,059
Crescent B&TC	Jasper	GA	D	$975
Crescent B&TC	New Orleans	LA	D+	$574
Darby B&TC	Vidalia	GA	D+	$784
Delaware County B&TC	Lewis Center	OH	D+	$713
Desert Hills Bk	Phoenix	AZ	D-	$517
Doral Bank Puerto Rico	San Juan	PR	D-	$8,822
Downey S&LA FA	Newport Beach	CA	D-	$12,630
East Boston Svg Bk	Boston	MA	D+	$1,013
Eastern Svgs Bk FSB	Hunt Valley	MD	D	$1,116
Equitable Bk SSB	Wauwatosa	WI	D	$553
Eurobank	San Juan	PR	D-	$2,829
Exchange Bk	Santa Rosa	CA	D+	$1,679
Farmers & Merchants Bk	Lakeland	GA	D-	$589
Federal Trust Bank	Sanford	FL	E-	$637
Fidelity Bank	Dearborn	MI	D-	$1,036
Fidelity Bk	Norcross	GA	D+	$1,775
Fifth Third Bk	Grand Rapids	MI	D+	$54,161
First American B&TC	Vacherie	LA	D+	$687
First American Intl Bk	Brooklyn	NY	D+	$558
First Bank of Beverly Hills	Calabasas	CA	D+	$1,332
First Bk	Creve Coeur	MO	D	$10,780
First Bk Fncl Centre	Oconomowoc	WI	D	$587
First Central Svgs Bk	Glen Cove	NY	E+	$655
First Community Bk	Taos	NM	D+	$3,462
First Federal Bank	Harrison	AR	D	$820
First Federal Bank of CA FSB	Santa Monica	CA	D-	$7,179
First Georgia Banking Co	Franklin	GA	D	$780
First Independent Bk	Vancouver	WA	D	$958
First Mariner Bk	Baltimore	MD	D-	$1,179
First NB of GA	Carrollton	GA	D-	$906
First NB of Nevada	Reno	NV	F	$3,411
First NB of the South	Spartanburg	SC	D	$861
First Niagara Commercial Bk	Lockport	NY	D	$685
First Place Bank	Warren	OH	D+	$3,176
First Private B&T	Encino	CA	D	$639
First St Bk	Eastpointe	MI	D	$731
First St Bk	Stockbridge	GA	D-	$680
First Tennessee Bk NA	Memphis	TN	D+	$35,287
First United B&TC	Durant	OK	D	$1,927
FirstBank Florida	Miami	FL	D+	$895
Firstbank of PR	San Juan	PR	D+	$17,841
Flagstar Bk FSB	Troy	MI	D-	$14,559
Florida Bank	Tampa	FL	D+	$553
Florida Capital Bank, NA	Jacksonville	FL	D-	$879
Florida Community Bk	Immokalee	FL	E+	$990
Founders Bk	Worth	IL	D	$972
Franklin Bk SSB	Houston	TX	D-	$5,572
Fremont Investment & Loan	Brea	CA	E	$5,657
Gainesville Bank & Trust	Gainesville	GA	D+	$690
Goldman Sachs Bk USA	Salt Lake City	UT	D-	$25,727
Great FL Bk	Miami	FL	D+	$1,791
Guaranty Bank	Milwaukee	WI	D-	$1,749
Guaranty Bk	Austin	TX	D+	$15,756
H&R Block Bank	Kansas City	MO	D	$1,067
Habersham Bk	Clarkesville	GA	D-	$502
Hampden Bank	Springfield	MA	D+	$518
Hanmi Bk	Los Angeles	CA	D	$3,839
Haven SB	Hoboken	NJ	D+	$692
Haven Trust Bank	Duluth	GA	D-	$558
Heartland Bk	Clayton	MO	D	$893
Helm Bk	Miami	FL	D+	$645
Highland Bk	St Michael	MN	D	$503
Hillcrest Bk	Overland Park	KS	D-	$1,888
Home FSB	Rochester	MN	D+	$1,076
Home NB	Blackwell	OK	D	$806
Home S&LC	Youngstown	OH	D	$2,739
HSBC Bk USA NA	Wilmington	DE	D+	$177,466
Huntington NB	Columbus	OH	D+	$54,842
Illinois NB	Springfield	IL	D-	$505
Imperial Capital Bk	La Jolla	CA	D	$4,089
Independence Bk	Owensboro	KY	D+	$702
Independent Bk	Ionia	MI	D-	$3,232
Independent Bk	Memphis	TN	D+	$643
IndyMac Bk FSB	Pasadena	CA	E-	$30,534
Inland B&T	Lake Zurich	IL	D-	$1,098
Integrity Bk	Alpharetta	GA	F	$1,108
Inter Svgs Bk FSB	Maple Grove	MN	D-	$895
International Bk of Miami NA	Coral Gables	FL	D	$800
Intervest NB	New York	NY	D-	$2,103
Irwin Union Bk	Columbus	IN	D+	$5,285
Irwin Union Bk FSB	Columbus	IN	D+	$692
K Bk	Owings Mills	MD	D-	$657
LaSalle Bank Midwest NA	Troy	MI	D+	$37,643
Leaders Bk	Oak Brook	IL	D+	$588
Legacy Bk	Hinton	OK	D+	$504
Lehman Brothers Bk FSB	Wilmington	DE	D+	$10,577
LibertyBank	Eugene	OR	D-	$947
Lincoln Bank	Plainfield	IN	D+	$868
Los Padres Bk	Solvang	CA	D+	$1,195
Lowell Five Cents SB	Lowell	MA	D+	$659
Lydian Private Bank	Palm Beach	FL	D+	$1,923
Macatawa Bk	Holland	MI	D	$2,116
Magna Bank	Brentwood	TN	D+	$534
Magyar Bank	New Brunswick	NJ	D	$510
Marine Bk-Springfield	Springfield	IL	D+	$623
Mercantil Commercebank, NA	Miami	FL	D+	$6,036
Meridian Bank NA	Wickenburg	AZ	D	$2,127
Merrick Bank Corp	S Jordan	UT	D+	$1,202
Metropolitan NB	Little Rock	AR	D	$1,746
Midcountry Bank	Marion	IL	D-	$979
Mid-Missouri Bk	Springfield	MO	D+	$705
MidWestOne Bk	Oskaloosa	IA	D	$789
Millennium BCP Bank, NA	Newark	NJ	D-	$836
Mountain 1st B&T	Hendersonville	NC	D+	$685
Mutual Bk	Harvey	IL	D-	$1,698
National City Bk	Cleveland	OH	D	$151,165
Nevada Security Bk	Reno	NV	D+	$632
New Frontier Bk	Greeley	CO	D+	$2,035
New South FSB	Irondale	AL	D	$1,962
Newbridge Bank	Lexington	NC	D+	$2,012
Nexity Bk	Birmingham	AL	D-	$1,095
Norstates Bank	Waukegan	IL	D	$638
Northeast Bk	Auburn	ME	D+	$596
Northside Cmnty Bk	Gurnee	IL	D	$555
Northwest Georgia Bk	Ringgold	GA	D+	$613
NOVA Savings Bk	Berwyn	PA	D-	$520
Ocean Bk	Miami	FL	E+	$4,848
Omni Bk	Metairie	LA	D	$735
Omni NB	Atlanta	GA	E	$1,030
OmniAmerican Bank	Fort Worth	TX	D	$1,092
One United Bk	Boston	MA	D+	$725
Orion Bk	Naples	FL	D-	$2,889
Pacific Trust Bk	Chula Vista	CA	D+	$825
Park Avenue Bk	Valdosta	GA	D	$1,221
Park View FSB	Cleveland	OH	D	$868
Peninsula Bk	Englewood	FL	D-	$589
Peoples Community Bank	W Chester	OH	D-	$764
Peoples First Community Bk	Panama City	FL	D-	$1,840
PFF B&T	Pomona	CA	E	$4,102
Preferred Bk	Los Angeles	CA	D	$1,525
Premier Bk	Jefferson City	MO	D-	$1,504
Premier Bk	Medford	OR	D+	$1,487
Premier Bk-Maplewood	Maplewood	MN	D-	$560
Presidential Bk FSB	Bethesda	MD	D-	$556
Prosperity Bk	St Augustine	FL	D+	$1,027
Redding Bk of Commerce	Redding	CA	D-	$642
Reliance Bk	Des Peres	MO	D+	$1,266
Republic Federal Bank, NA	Miami	FL	D-	$590
R-G Premier Bk of PR	San Juan	PR	D-	$7,189
Riverbank MN	Wyoming	MN	D-	$500
Riverside Bk of Gulf Coast	Cape Coral	FL	E+	$621
Royal Bk America	Narberth	PA	D	$1,064
Saehan Bk	Los Angeles	CA	D+	$888
Scotiabank DE PR	Hato Rey	PR	D-	$1,603
Seacoast NB	Stuart	FL	D-	$2,295
Seattle SB	Seattle	WA	D+	$655
Security Bank of Bibb County	Macon	GA	D-	$1,359
Security Pacific Bk	Los Angeles	CA	E-	$588
Security Svgs Bk FSB	Olathe	KS	D+	$693
Signature Bk of Arkansas	Fayetteville	AR	D	$615
Silver St Bk	Henderson	NV	F	$1,957
Silverton Bank, NA	Atlanta	GA	D	$2,905
Southwest Bk	Fort Worth	TX	D+	$561
Sovereign Bk NA	Dallas	TX	D+	$674
St. Louis Bank	Town And Country	MO	D+	$527
Sterling B&T FSB	Southfield	MI	D-	$672
Sterling Savings Bank	Spokane	WA	D	$12,216
Strategic Cap Bk	Champaign	IL	D-	$676
Sun American Bk	Boca Raton	FL	D-	$649
Superior Bank	Birmingham	AL	D-	$2,835
Teambank NA	Paola	KS	D+	$682
Temecula Valley Bk	Temecula	CA	D	$1,462
TIB Bank	Naples	FL	D	$1,490
TierOne Bk	Lincoln	NE	D	$3,227
TotalBank	Miami	FL	D+	$1,907
Tower B&TC	Fort Wayne	IN	D+	$691
Truman Bk	St Louis	MO	D-	$517
Umpqua Bk	Roseburg	OR	D+	$8,343
Union Bk	Kansas City	MO	D+	$635
United Security Bank	Fresno	CA	D-	$770
Valley Bk	Moline	IL	D+	$696
Vantus Bk	Sioux City	IA	D+	$565
Venture Bk	Lacey	WA	D	$1,224
Vineyard Bk, NA	Rancho Cucam.	CA	E+	$2,336
Vision Bk	Panama City	FL	D	$938
Wachovia Mortgage, FSB	N Las Vegas	NV	D+	$76,795
Warren Bk	Warren	MI	E+	$622
Washington Mutual Bank	Henderson	NV	D+	$299,417
Waterstone Bank	Wauwatosa	WI	D	$1,838
West Coast Bk	Lake Oswego	OR	D-	$2,618
Westernbank Puerto Rico	Mayaguez	PR	D-	$17,082

13. Strongest Banks and Thrifts in the U.S.
Distributed by: Weiss Research, Inc., www.MoneyandMarkets.com.
Source of Financial Strength Ratings: TheStreet.com Ratings, www.TheStreet.com.
Data source: FDIC’s Call Reports and OTS’ Thrift Financial Reports, June 30, 2008.
Selection criteria for the table below: U.S. commercial banks, savings banks, S&Ls and other thrifts with total assets of $500 million or more and with a rating of B+ or higher.

Name	City	State	TheStreet.com Rating	Total Assets ($Millions)
Advanta Bk Corp	Draper	UT	A	$2,761
Albany B&TC NA	Chicago	IL	A	$518
Alerus Financial NA	Grand Forks	ND	B+	$738
American Bk of Texas	Sherman	TX	A-	$1,076
American Bk TX NA	Marble Falls	TX	B+	$674
American Heritage Bk	Sapulpa	OK	A-	$617
American NB&TC	Danville	VA	A	$790
American St Bk	Lubbock	TX	A-	$2,076
Apple Bk For Svgs	Manhasset	NY	B+	$7,761
BancFirst	Oklahoma City	OK	A-	$3,823
BancorpSouth Bk	Tupelo	MS	B+	$13,395
Bank of Clarke Cty	Berryville	VA	B+	$512
Bank of Commerce	Idaho Falls	ID	A+	$718
Bank of Hampton Roads	Norfolk	VA	B+	$554
Bank of Marin	Corte Madera	CA	B+	$953
Bank of Stockton	Stockton	CA	A-	$1,775
Bank of the Ozarks	Little Rock	AR	B+	$3,052
Bank of the Sierra	Porterville	CA	A-	$1,305
Bank of the West	El Paso	TX	A-	$716
Bank of Utah	Ogden	UT	B+	$704
Bank of Washington	Washington	MO	B+	$642
BankPlus	Belzoni	MS	B+	$2,155
Beal Bk NV	Las Vegas	NV	B+	$2,213
Bessemer TC	Woodbridge Twp	NJ	A-	$615
Bessemer Trust Co NA	New York	NY	A-	$608
Broadway NB	San Antonio	TX	A	$1,770
Brookline Bank	Brookline	MA	A-	$2,422
Burke & Herbert B&TC	Alexandria	VA	A	$1,568
Cameron St Bk	Lake Charles	LA	A-	$594
Centennial Bk	Fountain Valley	CA	B+	$796
Centier Bank	Whiting	IN	A-	$1,818
Central Bk	Provo	UT	B+	$629
Central Valley Cmnty Bk	Fresno	CA	B+	$522
Charter Bk Eau Claire	Eau Claire	WI	B+	$500
Citizens 1st Bank	Tyler	TX	A	$602
Citizens Bk	Elizabethton	TN	A-	$629
Citizens Bk	Philadelphia	MS	B+	$693
Citizens Bk	Farmington	NM	B+	$535
Citizens NB of Meridian	Meridian	MS	A-	$1,124
City NB	Beverly Hills	CA	B+	$15,971
City NB of Florida	Miami	FL	A+	$2,817
City NB of WV	Charleston	WV	A-	$2,461
Columbia Bk	Fair Lawn	NJ	B+	$4,411
Community Bk	Pasadena	CA	B+	$2,302
Community BK of Tri-Cty	Waldorf	MD	B+	$643
Conway NB	Conway	SC	A-	$860
CorTrust Bk NA	Mitchell	SD	B+	$532
Custodial Trust Co	Princeton	NJ	A	$880
Deutsche Bk TC Americas	New York	NY	B+	$46,071
Deutsche Bk Tr Co DE	Wilmington	DE	A-	$715
Dime Svgs Bk of Williamsburg	Brooklyn	NY	B+	$3,654
Eastern Bk	Boston	MA	B+	$6,802
El Dorado Svgs Bk FSB	Placerville	CA	A-	$1,587
Evangeline B&TC	Ville Platte	LA	A-	$525
Farmers & Merch Bk Ctrl CA	Lodi	CA	A-	$1,607
Farmers & Merchants Bk	Long Beach	CA	A	$3,279
Farmers St Bk	Marion	IA	A-	$534
Fidelity Bk	Fuquay-Varina	NC	A-	$1,459
First B&T East Texas	Diboll	TX	B+	$619
First Bk	Troy	NC	B+	$2,625
First Citizens B&TC	Columbia	SC	B+	$6,182
First Citizens NB	Mason City	IA	A-	$833
First Community Bk NA	Bluefield	VA	B+	$2,035
First Constitution Bk	Cranbury	NJ	A-	$504
First Farmers & Merchants Bk	Columbia	TN	B+	$876
First Federal Bk of FL	Lake City	FL	A-	$636
First Financial Bank, NA	Abilene	TX	B+	$1,016
First Financial Bk	Terre Haute	IN	A	$2,229
First Financial Bk NA	Hamilton	OH	B+	$3,448
First Hawaiian Bk	Honolulu	HI	A-	$13,027
First Mid Illinois B&T NA	Mattoon	IL	B+	$1,012
First NB	Hot Springs	AR	A-	$728
First NB	Paragould	AR	A-	$580
First NB	Fort Pierre	SD	B+	$602
First NB Alaska	Anchorage	AK	B+	$2,320
First NB of Long Island	Glen Head	NY	A-	$1,175
First NB of Newtown	Newtown	PA	A	$607
First NB of Palmerton	Palmerton	PA	A-	$571
First NB of Pulaski	Pulaski	TN	B+	$566
First NB of Shelby	Shelby	NC	A	$947
First NB of TN	Livingston	TN	A	$550
First PREMIER Bk	Sioux Falls	SD	A	$871
First Security Bk	Missoula	MT	A-	$847
First Source Bk	S Bend	IN	B+	$4,457
First St Bk Central TX	Austin	TX	B+	$1,005
Firstbank Southwest	Amarillo	TX	B+	$660
FPC Financial FSB	Madison	WI	B+	$1,729
Frost NB	San Antonio	TX	A-	$13,797
Gate City Bk	Fargo	ND	A-	$994
GE Capital Fncl	Salt Lake City	UT	A-	$5,266
Glacier Bk	Kalispell	MT	A-	$1,155
Glens Falls NB&TC	Glens Falls	NY	B+	$1,396
Heritage Bk of Commerce	San Jose	CA	B+	$1,486
High Point B&TC	High Point	NC	A-	$791
Hills B&TC	Hills	IA	B+	$1,706
Home Federal Bank	Nampa	ID	B+	$687
Home Federal Bank of TN	Knoxville	TN	B+	$1,797
Hudson Valley Bank, NA	Stamford	CT	B+	$2,210
Idaho Independent Bk	Coeur D'Alene	ID	B+	$595
International Bk/Cmmrce NA	Brownsville	TX	B+	$794
Intrust Bk NA	Wichita	KS	B+	$3,463
Jersey Shore St Bk	Jersey Shore	PA	A-	$623
KleinBank	Big Lake	MN	B+	$1,545
LA Jolla Bk FSB	Rancho Santa Fe	CA	B+	$3,659
Lehman Brothers Comml Bank	Salt Lake City	UT	B+	$6,418
Liberty Bk	Middletown	CT	A-	$2,778
Luther Burbank Svgs	Santa Rosa	CA	B+	$3,049
Manufacturers Bk	Los Angeles	CA	B+	$2,073
Maspeth FS&LA	Maspeth	NY	A	$1,353
Mechanics Bk	Richmond	CA	B+	$2,656
Mizuho Corporate Bk Of CA	Los Angeles	CA	B+	$558
Mizuho Corporate Bk USA	New York	NY	B+	$3,035
Mountain West Bk	Coeur D'Alene	ID	B+	$1,115
National B&TC of Sycamore	Sycamore	IL	A-	$574
National Bk of Blacksburg	Blacksburg	VA	A-	$891
National Exchange B&TC	Fond Du Lac	WI	A	$1,053
Nationwide Bank	Columbus	OH	A-	$1,506
Needham Bk	Needham	MA	B+	$803
Newburyport Five Cnts SB	Newburyport	MA	B+	$588
North American Svgs Bk FSB	Grandview	MO	B+	$1,546
Northfield Bank	Staten Island	NY	A-	$1,518
Old Second NB	Aurora	IL	B+	$2,953
OptumHealth Bank, Inc.	W Valley City	UT	A-	$771
Orrstown Bk	Shippensburg	PA	B+	$937
Pacific Coast Bkr BK	San Francisco	CA	B+	$504
Panhandle St Bk	Sandpoint	ID	B+	$1,023
Parke Bk	Sewell	NJ	B+	$528
Penn Security B&TC	Scranton	PA	A-	$625
Peoples Bk of Biloxi	Biloxi	MS	A-	$891
People's United Bank	Bridgeport	CT	B+	$17,367
Piedmont FSB	Winston-Salem	NC	B+	$834
Pinnacle Bk	Lincoln	NE	B+	$2,211
Provident Bk	Montebello	NY	B+	$2,682
Prudential Bank & Trust, FSB	Hartford	CT	B+	$1,445
RCB Bk	Claremore	OK	B+	$1,189
River City Bk	Sacramento	CA	B+	$862
Roma Bank	Robbinsville	NJ	B+	$923
Rosedale FS&LA	Baltimore	MD	A+	$607
Savings Bk of Mendocino Cty	Ukiah	CA	A-	$738
Security NB of Omaha	Omaha	NE	B+	$574
Security NB of Sioux City IA	Sioux City	IA	B+	$617
Silicon Valley Bk	Santa Clara	CA	A	$6,673
Skagit St Bk	Burlington	WA	A-	$568
Solvay Bk	Solvay	NY	B+	$525
Somerset Svgs Bk, SLA	Bound Brook	NJ	B+	$596
South Side T&SB	Peoria	IL	A-	$518
Southern B&TC	Mt Olive	NC	B+	$1,165
Starion Financial	Bismarck	ND	B+	$576
State Bk of India (Calif)	Los Angeles	CA	B+	$589
State Bk of Southern Utah	Cedar City	UT	A-	$603
Stearns Bk NA	St Cloud	MN	B+	$1,031
StellarOne Bank	Christiansburg	VA	B+	$3,007
Sumitomo Tr & Bkg Co USA	Hoboken	NJ	A+	$718
Talbot Bk of Easton MD	Easton	MD	B+	$591
Time FSB	Medford	WI	B+	$502
Torrington Svgs Bk	Torrington	CT	B+	$725
Tri City NB	Oak Creek	WI	A	$755
Tri Counties Bk	Chico	CA	A-	$1,979
UMB Bank Colorado	Denver	CO	B+	$845
UMB NB of America	Salina	KS	B+	$591
Union B&TC	Lincoln	NE	B+	$1,720
United Bk	Zebulon	GA	B+	$646
Univest NB&TC	Souderton	PA	A-	$1,995
Washington First Intl Bk	Seattle	WA	B+	$638
Washington FS&LA	Seattle	WA	A	$11,572
Waukesha St Bk	Waukesha	WI	A	$687
Western Security Bank	Billings	MT	A-	$567
Wilmington Svgs Fund Society	Wilmington	DE	B+	$3,193
Wilshire St Bk	Los Angeles	CA	B+	$2,356
Woodforest NB	Houston	TX	A-	$2,687
World Financial Network NB	Columbus	OH	A-	$1,029
Wright Express Fin Svcs Corp	Salt Lake City	UT	A-	$1,493
Yakima FS&LA	Yakima	WA	B+	$1,394

14. Weakest Life, Health and Annuity Insurers in the U.S.
Distributed by: Weiss Research, Inc., www.MoneyandMarkets.com.
Source of Financial Strength Ratings: TheStreet.com Ratings, www.TheStreet.com.
Data source: Statutory filings with state insurance commissioners, second quarter 2008.
Selection criteria for the table below: U.S. life and health insurers with total assets of $500 million or more and with a rating of D+ or lower.

Company	State	TheStreet.com Financial Strength Rating	($) Total Assets
ACA Financial Guaranty Corp	MD	D-	642,377,000
Affirmative Ins Co	IL	D+	514,802,000
American Physicians Asr Corp	MI	D+	846,083,000
Arrowood Indemnity Co	DE	D	2,942,967,000
Axis Surplus Ins Co	IL	D	580,783,000
Bankers Life & Cas Co	IL	D+	10,770,393,000
Brickstreet Mutual Ins Co	WV	E+	1,479,174,000
Catastrophe Reins Co	TX	E+	1,262,290,000
Clearwater Ins Co	DE	D	1,298,296,000
Coast National Ins Co	CA	D+	545,402,000
Colonial Penn Life Ins Co	PA	D+	709,488,000
Conseco Health Ins Co	AZ	D+	2,392,440,000
Conseco Ins Co	IL	D+	1,133,932,000
Conseco Life Ins Co	IN	D+	4,266,844,000
Conseco Senior Health Ins Co	PA	D+	3,425,873,000
Dorinco Reinsurance Co	MI	D	1,750,983,000
Financial Guaranty Ins Co	NY	D	4,263,721,000
Finial Reins Co	CT	D	1,317,986,000
First State Ins Co	CT	E	981,690,000
Global Reins Corp Of America	NY	D-	584,308,000
Greenwich Ins Co	DE	D	863,114,000
Indiana Old National Ins Co	VT	D	1,999,448,000
Jefferson National Life Ins Co	TX	D-	1,614,881,000
Lifecare Assurance Co	AZ	D+	682,772,000
Lumbermens Mutual Cas Co	IL	E	1,595,570,000
Medical Liability Mutual Ins Co	NY	D+	5,008,299,000
Monarch Life Ins Co	MA	F	924,370,000
Partner Reinsurance Co Of The Us	NY	D+	3,326,868,000
Penn Treaty Network America Ins Co	PA	D+	1,037,633,000
Physicians Reciprocal Insurers	NY	E-	1,412,360,000
PMI Ins Co	AZ	D+	564,310,000
PMI Mortgage Ins Co	AZ	D	3,765,664,000
Presidential Life Ins Co	NY	D+	3,891,910,000
Princeton Ins Co	NJ	D+	1,034,679,000
Radian Guaranty Inc	PA	D	4,038,675,000
SCOR Global Life US Re Ins Co	TX	D+	1,996,976,000
SCOR Reinsurance Co	NY	D	1,427,621,000
Seabright Ins Co	IL	D+	695,986,000
TIG Ins Co	CA	D	2,176,928,000
Underwriters At Lloyds London	IL	E+	741,757,000
United Automobile Ins Co	FL	D-	540,645,000
Washington National Ins Co	IL	D+	2,376,426,000
Western United Life Asr Co	WA	F	789,315,000
Wilton Reassurance Life Co Of NY	NY	D-	1,217,650,000
XL Capital Asr Inc	NY	D	580,951,000
XL Ins America Inc	DE	D+	618,004,000

15. Strongest Life, Health and Annuity Insurers in the U.S.
Distributed by: Weiss Research, Inc., www.MoneyandMarkets.com.
Source of Financial Strength Ratings: TheStreet.com Ratings, www.TheStreet.com.
Data source: Statutory filings with state insurance commissioners, second quarter 2008.
Selection criteria for the table below: U.S. life and health insurers with total assets of $500 million or more and with a rating of B+ or higher.

Company	State	TheStreet.com Financial Strength Rating	($) Total Assets
Acacia Life Ins Co	DC	A-	1,632,297,000
Alfa Life Ins Corp	AL	A	1,122,859,000
Alfa Mutual Fire Ins Co	AL	A-	792,965,000
Alfa Mutual Ins Co	AL	A-	1,450,155,000
Allstate Ins Co	IL	A-	44,022,535,000
Allstate Life Ins Co	IL	A-	75,704,815,000
American Family Life Asr Co Of Colum	NE	B+	63,026,750,000
American Family Life Ins Co	WI	A+	3,922,736,000
American Fidelity Asr Co	OK	A+	3,282,597,000
American General Life Ins Co	TX	B+	36,618,728,000
American Health & Life Ins Co	TX	B+	1,711,478,000
American Income Life Ins Co	IN	A-	1,730,502,000
American Modern Home Ins Co	OH	B+	895,708,000
American National Ins Co	TX	B+	14,228,188,000
American National Property & Cas Co	MO	A-	1,186,077,000
American United Life Ins Co	IN	A-	13,653,720,000
Ameritas Life Ins Corp	NE	A-	6,200,251,000
Amica Life Ins Co	RI	A-	928,202,000
Anthem Blue Cross Life & Health Ins	CA	B+	1,933,280,000
Assurity Life Ins Co	NE	B+	2,182,113,000
Auto-Owners Ins Co	MI	A	9,445,988,000
Auto-Owners Life Ins Co	MI	A	2,073,873,000
AXA Corporate Solutions Life Reins	DE	A-	896,661,000
AXA Life & Annuity Co	CO	B+	550,385,000
Berkshire Life Ins Co Of America	MA	A	2,360,212,000
Bituminous Casualty Corp	IL	A-	762,010,000
Boston Mutual Life Ins Co	MA	B+	897,252,000
California State Auto Asn Inter-Ins	CA	A-	5,632,433,000
Canal Ins Co	SC	B+	1,245,243,000
Central Mutual Ins Co	OH	B+	1,229,300,000
Church Mutual Ins Co	WI	A	1,194,769,000
Cincinnati Ins Co	OH	A-	9,997,816,000
Columbus Life Ins Co	OH	B+	2,521,485,000
Commerce Ins Co	MA	B+	2,951,007,000
Cooperativa D Seguros Multiples D Pr	PR	A-	515,778,000
Cornhusker Casualty Co	NE	B+	772,947,000
Country Life Ins Co	IL	A+	7,371,917,000
Country Mutual Ins Co	IL	A	3,450,695,000
Cumis Ins Society Inc	IA	B+	1,346,943,000
Dairyland Ins Co	WI	A	1,246,729,000
Empire Fidelity Investments L I C	NY	A-	1,542,762,000
Erie Family Life Ins Co	PA	B+	1,560,126,000
Farm Bureau Life Ins Co	IA	B+	5,623,349,000
Farm Bureau Life Ins Co Of Michigan	MI	A-	1,705,973,000
Farm Bureau Mutual Ins Co	IA	A-	1,484,294,000
Farm Family Life Ins Co	NY	B+	1,012,581,000
Farmers Automobile Ins Asn	IL	B+	860,453,000
Federal Ins Co	IN	B+	29,772,626,000
Federated Life Ins Co	MN	A	944,589,000
Federated Mutual Ins Co	MN	B+	3,909,037,000
Fidelity Investments Life Ins Co	UT	A	15,309,502,000
Fidelity Life Assn A Legal Reserve	IL	B+	528,469,000
First Investors Life Ins Co	NY	A-	1,275,675,000
Foremost Ins Co	MI	A-	1,997,074,000
Fort Dearborn Life Ins Co	IL	A	2,264,437,000
Frankenmuth Mutual Ins Co	MI	A	959,680,000
Geico Indemnity Co	MD	A-	4,578,509,000
General Re Life Corp	CT	B+	2,645,988,000
Georgia Farm Bureau Mutual Ins Co	GA	A-	828,866,000
Gerber Life Ins Co	NY	A-	1,466,269,000
Government Employees Ins Co	MD	B+	12,630,060,000
Government Personnel Mutual L I C	TX	B+	788,971,000
Grange Mutual Cas Co	OH	A-	1,617,156,000
Great Northern Ins Co	IN	B+	1,491,886,000
Great West Casualty Co	NE	A-	1,545,657,000
Great-West Life & Annuity Ins Co	CO	B+	36,344,017,000
Guardian Life Ins Co Of America	NY	A	28,965,624,000
Hartford Fire Ins Co	CT	B+	25,588,058,000
Hartford Life & Annuity Ins Co	CT	B+	82,527,190,000
Hartford Underwriters Ins Co	CT	B+	1,579,478,000
Hastings Mutual Ins Co	MI	A+	611,227,000
Health Net Life Ins Co	CA	B+	798,765,000
Home-Owners Ins Co	MI	A	1,276,338,000
Illinois Mutual Life Ins Co	IL	A-	1,273,086,000
Interins Exch Of The Automobile Club	CA	A+	5,581,507,000
Jackson National Life Ins Co	MI	B+	73,607,090,000
John Hancock Life Ins Co	MA	A-	68,798,380,000
John Hancock Life Ins Co (USA)	MI	B+	121,384,552,000
John Hancock Life Ins Co Of NY	NY	A	7,064,601,000
John Hancock Variable Life Ins Co	MA	B+	14,560,345,000
Kentucky Farm Bureau Mutual Ins Co	KY	A	1,660,062,000
Liberty National Life Ins Co	AL	B+	5,116,696,000
Lincoln Benefit Life Co	NE	B+	3,120,866,000
Lincoln Heritage Life Ins Co	IL	B+	594,141,000
London Life Reinsurance Co	PA	B+	1,245,872,000
Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins Co	MA	A	119,963,256,000
Mercury Casualty Co	CA	A-	2,382,117,000
Mercury Ins Co	CA	A	1,516,421,000
Merit Life Ins Co	IN	B+	1,106,579,000
Merrimack Mutual Fire Ins Co	MA	A-	861,026,000
Metropolitan Life Ins Co	NY	B+	301,793,931,000
Metropolitan Property & Cas Ins Co	RI	B+	5,183,091,000
Midland National Life Ins Co	IA	A-	25,670,030,000
Minnesota Life Ins Co	MN	A-	22,925,431,000
MML Bay State Life Ins Co	CT	A-	4,555,221,000
Motorists Mutual Ins Co	OH	B+	1,213,330,000
MTL Ins Co	IL	B+	1,283,579,000
Mutual Ins Co Of AZ	AZ	B+	885,430,000
Mutual Of America Life Ins Co	NY	B+	12,424,461,000
Mutual Of Omaha Ins Co	NE	A-	4,538,156,000
National Benefit Life Ins Co	NY	A-	722,951,000
National Guardian Life Ins Co	WI	A-	1,514,956,000
National Integrity Life Ins Co	NY	B+	3,761,456,000
National Liability & Fire Ins Co	CT	A-	1,199,175,000
Nationwide Life Ins Co	OH	B+	93,104,603,000
Nationwide Life Ins Co Of America	PA	B+	6,056,557,000
Nationwide Mutual Fire Ins Co	OH	B+	4,310,256,000
New York Life Ins & Annuity Corp	DE	A	73,552,223,000
New York Life Ins Co	NY	A	123,446,502,000
New York Marine & General Ins Co	NY	A-	601,600,000
North Carolina Farm Bu Mutual Ins Co	NC	A-	1,592,026,000
Northwestern Mutual Life Ins Co	WI	A	158,298,015,000
Ohio National Life Asr Corp	OH	B+	2,703,697,000
Old Republic General Ins Corp	IL	A-	987,289,000
Old Republic Ins Co	PA	A-	2,380,335,000
Owners Ins Co	OH	A-	2,447,660,000
Pacific Life & Annuity Co	AZ	A-	2,419,040,000
Pacific Life Ins Co	NE	A	94,447,398,000
Pekin Life Ins Co	IL	B+	826,846,000
Penn Ins & Annuity Co	DE	B+	1,103,682,000
Penn Mutual Life Ins Co	PA	B+	10,339,561,000
Physicians Life Ins Co	NE	A-	1,302,749,000
Physicians Mutual Ins Co	NE	A+	1,406,088,000
Primerica Life Ins Co	MA	A-	6,140,884,000
Principal Life Ins Co	IA	A-	132,593,698,000
Protective Ins Co	IN	A+	603,960,000
Radian Asset Asr Co	NY	B+	2,504,183,000
Reliable Life Ins Co	MO	A-	739,976,000
Reliastar Life Ins Co	MN	B+	21,955,348,000
Riversource Life Ins Co Of NY	NY	B+	4,839,180,000
Safety Ins Co	MA	B+	1,223,114,000
Savings Bank Life Ins Co Of Ma	MA	A-	2,088,888,000
Sentry Ins A Mutual Co	WI	A	5,609,638,000
Sentry Life Ins Co	WI	A	3,214,258,000
Shelter Life Ins Co	MO	A-	924,554,000
Southern Farm Bureau Cas Ins Co	MS	A-	2,748,224,000
Southern Farm Bureau Life Ins Co	MS	A	9,974,133,000
Standard Life & Accident Ins Co	OK	A-	526,172,000
State Auto Property & Casualty Ins	IA	B+	1,741,576,000
State Farm Life & Accident Asr Co	IL	A+	1,575,818,000
State Farm Life Ins Co	IL	A+	43,585,179,000
State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins Co	IL	B+	103,031,215,000
State Volunteer Mutual Ins Co	TN	B+	949,776,000
Teachers Ins & Annuity Asn Of Am	NY	A+	198,035,469,000
Tennessee Farmers Asr Co	TN	A	883,836,000
Tennessee Farmers Life Ins Co	TN	A	1,269,559,000
Tennessee Farmers Mutual Ins Co	TN	A-	1,902,758,000
Thrivent Life Ins Co	MN	B+	3,420,312,000
Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Ins Ltd	NY	B+	1,701,782,000
Union Central Life Ins Co	OH	B+	6,971,059,000
United Farm Family Life Ins Co	IN	A	1,688,051,000
United Farm Family Mutual Ins Co	IN	A-	840,304,000
United Of Omaha Life Ins Co	NE	B+	13,174,566,000
United Services Automobile Asn	TX	A+	18,709,703,000
USAA Casualty Ins Co	TX	A+	6,182,472,000
USAA Life Ins Co	TX	A	11,408,616,000
Variable Annuity Life Ins Co	TX	A-	61,439,244,000
Wesco-Financial Ins Co	NE	B+	2,901,304,000
West Bend Mutual Ins Co	WI	A-	1,483,559,000
Western & Southern Life Ins Co	OH	B+	8,533,045,000

16. Select U.S. Brokers With Their Capital Multiples
Publisher: Weiss Research, Inc.
Data source: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and most recent financial statements.
Selection criteria for the table below: Based on reader interest and other issues we deemed relevant to investors.
Definition of Capital Multiple: Total net capital divided by minimum capital requirement.
Important: Do not rely exclusively on this measure to evaluate the relative safety of your broker. When you have a choice, favor brokers with a higher capital multiple as an indicator of their ability to withstand losses or other financial difficulties.

Brokerage Firm	Capital Multiple
Edward Jones	19.90
Bank of New York Mellon (Pershing)	15.80
T. Rowe Price	13.98
Scottrade	13.86
OptionsXpress	12.65
Raymond James	11.92
Merrill Lynch	8.62
Fidelity	7.93
Bank of America Securities	5.97
ING Direct	5.85
Schwab	5.85
Lehman Brothers	5.43
E*Trade	5.00
TD Ameritrade	4.72
Citi Smith Barney	4.06
Goldman Sachs	3.90
Morgan Stanley	3.21