Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption, and policy failures:
• The Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Attack and the Perils of Privately Owned Infrastructure For years, businesses have resisted efforts from the federal government to hold them to robust cybersecurity standards. (New Yorker)
• How McKinsey Destroyed the Middle Class Technocratic management, no matter how brilliant, cannot unwind structural inequalities. Things changed in the 1960s, with McKinsey leading the way (The Atlantic)
• The Fall of the House of Gates? Fully reckoning with Bill Gates means not just focusing on how he treats women—vital as that is—but also confronting our own deep-seated worship of wealth and hardwired belief in hero narratives. (The Nation)
• Many Americans struggle with debt. Social media doesn’t help. Instagram and TikTok are full of things to buy. For some users, it’s a trap, with social media leading some users into debt (Vox)
• Militias Pose A Serious Threat. So Why Is It So Hard To Stop Them? When you’ve got neo-Nazis harassing an innocent family in the suburbs because of a podcast that has nothing to do with them, it’s pretty clear this country has a domestic extremism problem. (FiveThirtyEight)
• The Mother of All Deepfakes: An unsettling cheerleading scandal is going to court, and it raises questions about the threat of video-manipulation technology in sports—and beyond. (Sports Illustrated)
• How migrant caravans are organized—and scammed—via Facebook and WhatsApp Every year, thousands of people try to emigrate to the U.S. Not only do they have to deal with border guards and bad weather, they must also decide who to trust. (Rest of World)
• Seven Apple Suppliers Accused of Using Forced Labor From Xinjiang An investigation found that Apple’s suppliers participated in labor programs suspected of being part of China’s alleged genocide against Uyghurs. The newly uncovered evidence stands in contrast to Apple’s statements that it hasn’t found evidence of forced labor. (The Information)
• Chinese businessman with links to Steve Bannon is driving force for a sprawling disinformation network, researchers say Researchers say Guo Wengui, living in self-exile in New York City, is at the center of a digital web pushing election and covid falsehoods, according to Graphika research (Washington Post)
• Trump demands a coverup McConnell could block the formation of the Commission if he is able to convince 41 Republican Senators to join a filibuster of the legislation. (Popular Information)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Scott Sperling, Co-Chief Executive Officer of private equity firm Thomas. H. Lee. The Co-CEO is a member of the firm’s management and investment committees. THL has completed more than 100 investments in excess of $125 billion of aggregate purchase price. Their flagship fund has more than $5B in it, and their Automation Fund has over $900 million in LP assets.
Modernizing Aging Energy Infrastructure Is Expensive
Source: WSJ
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