The Financial Times takes a look at changes afoot in the financial industries most affected by growth in longevity - those who have in effect, inadvertently or otherwise, bet against such a thing coming to pass. ''Some are cynical about whether the longevity market will ever come to life - or at least on a meaningful scale. ... some banks are ...

A gloomy prognosis for the next 25 years from the World Healthy Organization (WHO) can be found at PLoS Medicine. Apparently, dawning expectations of significant healthy life extension in the decades ahead have not yet migrated from the actuaries to the health bureaucrats. ''Life expectancy for women in the high-income countries may reach 85.0 y ...

The Speculist gives some space to discussion of the old canard of overpopulation; some people like to use it as an argument against healthy life extension. Interestingly, Randall Parker appears to fall into the ''something must be done'' school. But Malthusianism of any sort has always been wrong; a good example of the way in which most people ...