Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• Loro Piana’s $9,000 Sweaters Rely on Unpaid Farmers in Peru: Thirty years of providing the world’s finest wool to the fashion house Loro Piana has done almost nothing for the Indigenous people of the Peruvian Andes. (Bloomberg)
• For-profit nursing homes are cutting corners on safety and draining resources with financial shenanigans − especially at midsize chains that dodge public scrutiny. The care at Landmark of Louisville Rehabilitation and Nursing was abysmal when state inspectors filed their survey report of the Kentucky facility on July 3, 2021. (The Conversation) see also The plundering of America’s hospitals: When hospitals sold off their land, investors got rich. Patients paid the price. (Business Insider)
• Opinion ‘Trickle-down economics’ is a scam that ignores decades of evidence. “Trickle-down” economics — defined as “cutting taxes for big businesses and those at the top” — has been a bust.“Economic inequality increased, many communities suffered from sustained disinvestment, and earnings growth for many Americans failed to keep pace with the cost of necessities like health care, housing, and education,” she said. “Investments in infrastructure and vital industries stagnated.” (Washington Post)
• Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies: LexisNexis, which generates consumer risk profiles for the insurers, knew about every trip G.M. drivers had taken in their cars, including when they sped, braked too hard or accelerated rapidly. (New York Times)
• Flawed Valuations Threaten $1.7 Trillion Private Credit Boom: Fund managers in this red-hot asset class are often valuing their loans more generously than others do. Regulators are starting to worry. (Bloomberg)
• Here’s What America Was Actually Like Four Years Ago: The former president’s allies want voters to recall their lives four years back, but March 2020 was a harrowing period most people would rather forget. In this 2024 election cycle, it’s crucial to remember. (Vanity Fair)
• Revealed: US conservative thinktank’s links to extremist fraternal order: Claremont Institute officials closely involved with Society for American Civic Renewal, which experts say is rooted in Christian nationalism. (The Guardian)
• Say gay, Florida: The settlement was a resounding victory for the parents and LGBTQ advocacy groups who filed the lawsuit. It dramatically limits the law’s application to a narrow set of circumstances that seldom occur in K-12 public schools. (Popular.info)
• The People Rooting for the End of IVF: An Alabama court ruling that recognized an embryo as a child has put the popular fertility treatment into the center of a national ethics debate. (The Atlantic)
• Why did the ‘King of Collectibles’ cast doubt on their million-dollar LeBron James card? The move touched off one of the most bizarre and byzantine scandals ever to hit the sports card industry. At the center of the saga are two questions: Was the card legit, and why did Goldin yank it? According to the Spiegels’ complaint, just after the card was pulled from the auction, they spoke by telephone with an executive from Upper Deck, the Exquisite Collection manufacturer, who told them: Somebody has a “vendetta against you.” (LA Times)
Be sure to check out this week’s Masters in Business with Mark Wiedman, BlackRock’s Head of the Global Client Business. He is responsible for commercial businesses worldwide and has been with Blackrock since 2004. The firm manages over $10 trillion in client assets.
Wealthy investments in alternatives include some VC, PE, and hedge funds, but the bulk is in real estate
Source: @dollarsanddata
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