The odds that you'll have a long, healthy life are better than ever ... and that creates a pretty hefty problem for pension funds. They need to find new ways to meet their obligations in a turbulent market, and the risk that you'll hang on forever is approaching every day. So, unless we're able to pass legislation encouraging mass suicide among the Baby Boomers (it's a joke, people, read Christopher Buckley's Boomsday to see how it shakes out), pension fund managers have a hefty dose of risk to offload -- fast. They're looking at the insurance-linked securities market as a way to handle the problem.

All joking aside, pension funds and insurers are translating to total pension liabilities of $19 trillion in the U.S. and $3 trillion in the UK, according to a Reuters report using data from International Financial Services London. And, an increase in longevity by one year could translate into a 3% jump in liabilities. Put simply, the IFSL's data means another $600 billion in the U.S. and $90 billion in the UK. Basically, everything we do to stick around longer (not that I'm discouraging it) leads to a higher and higher price tag.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the $330 billion auction rate securities (ARS) scandal, which since February has frozen the funds of investors who thought they were getting a low risk place to park their cash, has finally generated its first criminal probe. The charge is that two Credit Suisse brokers lied "to investors about how they placed their money into short-term securities."

I have been following the ARS scandal since February when I first became aware of the situation. Since then, my post has generated 5,036 comments from people whose money has been frozen thanks to the collapse of the weekly auctions that were intended to set the yields on these municipal bonds. These commenters are trying to team up to figure out how best to get back their money.

The Journal reports that the Justice Department's U.S. attorney's office for New York's Eastern District, represents the first known criminal matter stemming from the crumbling ARS market. Up until then, the lawsuits were of a civil nature -- seeking class-action status and more than 80 individual arbitration claims. But a criminal probe based on lying could result in cash damages and jail terms for these brokers.