A few highlights from blog posts today that caught my eye.

Understatement of the Day Award
Tyler Cowen: “The first volume of 949 pp. [of a biography of Stalin] brings the reader up only until 1928. A lot still happened after that.” [DRH note: Stalin died in 1953 and, of course, most of what he did, and a very large percent of his evil, happened after 1928.]

The next two are from the same post by former co-blogger Arnold Kling.

Insight on Long-Term Care
“[L]ong-term care insurance is something that I think does make sense, but you should buy it to get through age 75 and then self-insure thereafter).”
I had literally (and yes, I use the word “literally” literally) never thought of this. I turn 64 next week and I’m thinking about lots of retirement issues. I’ll look into this further.

Numeracy of the Day Award
Arnold’s first reason for shunning annuities:
“You are charged more than the actuarially fair premium. Part of that is overhead and profit, and maybe part of that is adverse selection-the insurance company has good reason to fear that you are in better health than someone else your age. In any event, the result is that an annuity reduces your consumption possibilities by as much as would be the case if you over-estimated your lifespan by several years and budgeted accordingly.”
It’s that last sentence that grabbed me.