Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• No Virginia, There Really Is No Such Thing as “the Fed” “The Fed” is actually “the Federal Reserve System,” which consists of twelve private regional reserve banks and a federal government agency called the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Board is a full-fledged federal regulatory agency. It makes rules, engages in supervision of financial institutions, brings enforcement actions, and undertakes administrative adjudication. In short, it does all the same type of things as the CFPB. (Credit Slips)
• ‘Gobsmackingly bananas’: scientists stunned by planet’s record September heat: The carbon emissions driving the climate crisis and rapid arrival of an El Niño event are to blame, researchers say. (The Guardian) see also Why Summers May Never Be the Same: In the summer of 2023, no matter where you lived, it was difficult to ignore how our shifting climate has upended many rites of the season. Few parts of the country were spared. Children at summer camps stayed inside. People worked and played outside late at night. Some considered moving to escape the worst effects. Now, many Americans are looking to their future summers and wondering if they will ever be the same. (New York Times)
• From $26 Billion to Bust: Sam Bankman-Fried’s Astonishing Rise and Fall: Now, as the trial against Bankman-Fried starts on charges that he swindled billions of dollars from his crypto platform FTX, the 31-year-old will have one last chance to tell his side of the story. (Bloomberg)
• How a Big Pharma Company Stalled a Potentially Lifesaving Vaccine in Pursuit of Bigger Profits: A vaccine against tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest infectious disease, has never been closer to reality, with the potential to save millions of lives. But its development slowed after its corporate owner focused on more profitable vaccines. (ProPublica) see also There’s a Pill That Helps People Quit Smoking. Why Isn’t It Sold in the U.S.? Even Canada has it. (Slate)
• They Quit Their Jobs. Their Ex-Employers Sued Them for Training Costs. Workers who sign training repayment agreements can owe their employers thousands of dollars if they leave their jobs early. Regulators are starting to crack down on the practice. (New York Times)
• How TikTok profits off dangerous health trends: Castor oil won’t dissolve cysts and tumors. Some creators on TikTok Shop are earning commissions by suggesting otherwise. (Vox)
• Children Are Dying in Ill-Prepared Emergency Rooms Across America: Hospitals and regulators have done little to ensure E.R.s are ready to treat children in emergencies, while researchers prove taking basic steps can save lives. (Wall Street Journal) see also How red-state politics are shaving years off American lives: Americans are more likely to die before age 65 than residents of similar nations, despite living in a country that spends substantially more per person on health care than its peers. Many of those early deaths can be traced to decisions made years ago by local and state lawmakers over whether to implement cigarette taxes, invest in public health or tighten seat-belt regulations, among other policies, an examination by The Washington Post found. States’ politics — and their resulting policies — are shaving years off American lives. (Washington Post)
• Mosquitoes Are a Growing Public Health Threat, Reversing Years of Progress: Climate change and the rapid evolution of the insect have helped drive up malaria deaths and brought dengue and other mosquito-borne viruses to places that never had to worry about them. (New York Times)
• The Next Targets for the Group That Overturned Roe: Alliance Defending Freedom has won fifteen Supreme Court cases. Now it wants religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws—and is going after trans rights. (New Yorker) see also After 50 Years, This Right-Wing Law Factory Is Crazier Than Ever: The American Legislative Exchange Council is where corporations and far-right groups go to buy government policy. (American Prospect)
• Vaccine Scientist Warns Antiscience Conspiracies Have Become a Deadly, Organized Movement: Vaccinologist Peter Hotez explains how the movement to oppose science and scientists has gained power. (Scientific American)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview interview this weekend with author Michael Lewis. His latest book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon about the rise and fall of FTX’s founder Sam Bankman Fried. Lewis spent a year embedded with Bankman Fried, who at one time was both the youngest billionaire worth nearly $100 billion dollars. The quirky crypto founder is now under arrest and awaiting trial for massive fraud.
Without a College Degree, Life in America Is Staggeringly Shorter
Source: New York Times
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