Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich: For years, rumors swirled about where his wealth came from. A Times investigation reveals the truth of how a college dropout clawed his way to the pinnacle of American finance and society. (New York Times)
• How Did DOGE Disrupt So Much While Saving So Little? The group’s biggest claims were largely incorrect, a New York Times analysis found. And its many smaller cuts added up to few savings. (New York Times) see also A Year In, the MAGA Labor Market Story Has Fallen Apart: The administration bet on government cuts, tariffs, deportations, and a gendered theory of growth. The data say otherwise. (Mike Konczal)
• How Starbucks Came Undone: In the ’90s, it became a once-in-a-generation triumph. Then it fell apart. What happened? (Slate)
• The latest government inflation and GDP figures are worthless, and will be for months to come: The federal government’s monthly releases of economic statistics — especially the inflation rate and growth as tracked by gross domestic product — have long occasioned partisan preening (or denunciation) and for a general public stock-taking of the health of the economy. Not this month. This time, they’re the occasion for doubt and confusion. (LA Times)
• These kitchen items may be contaminating your food with chemicals: See the thousands of plastic chemicals in what we eat. These chemicals act on the body in multiple ways — confusing hormones, disrupting immune systems and boosting cancer cells. But they all have one thing in common: They are intimately linked to plastic. (Washington Post)
• 15 People Have Died in Crashes Where Tesla Doors Wouldn’t Open: There are no official statistics on the dangers of electric handles. So Bloomberg did its own analysis. (Bloomberg)
• There’s a 92 Percent Chance Trump Is Making It Up: When riffing, the president exhibits an unusual tell. (The Atlantic) see also Here’s how Trump gets away with using dubious numbers: Trump doesn’t use numbers the way most of us do, as “things that can be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided,” as Columbia University statistician Andrew Gelman put it. Rather, he uses them as rhetorical objects. (Los Angeles Times)
• The Florida Divorcée’s Guide to Murder: Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors inspired a triple murder and led to a major First Amendment case. Still, the book is just one chapter in the bizarre story of its author, “Rex Feral,” a 77-year-old great-grandmother wrestling with decades of guilt and living anonymously—until now. (Vanity Fair)
• Bari Weiss spiked a major migrant story — and told on herself: Weiss’ catch-and-kill puts her editorial incompetence at CBS News on public view. (Salon) see also Bari Weiss is Not on the Level: When Fairness Becomes Permission for Lawlessness. (Notes from the Circus) see also Here’s the 60 Minutes Segment Trump and CBS News Executives Don’t Want You to See: Hours before it was set to air last night, CBS News executives pulled the segment, but Canada’s Global TV app received it prior to broadcast. It’s now all over the internet… (The Reset)
• Russia’s Puppet Tulsi Gabbard Strikes Again: How the Director of National Intelligence Is Laundering Kremlin Lies, Undermining NATO, and Endangering U.S. National Security. (Unmasking Russia)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with comedian Jay Leno, former Tonight Show host, and creator of Jay Leno’s Garage.
Have tariff policies been benign for the economy? The data implies otherwise
Source: LinkedIn
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