bethany mclean coronavirus

Following the trail of evidence, Louisiana Senator: Our Maternal Death Rates Are Only Bad If You Count Black Women, If you correct our population for race, were not as much of an outlier as itdotherwise appear.. . Bethany McLean is a . How Screwed Are Donald Trump and His Adult Children, and Other Questions You Might Have About the Staggering Fraud Lawsuit Against Them. [citation needed], She authored an article on Enron for the March 5, 2001, issue of Fortune entitled, "Is Enron Overpriced? As a result, private equity is now wound into the very fabric of our economy. Bill White wants to restore Americas historical proclivity for balanced budgets. . In April, the Energy Information Administration cut its forecast for U.S. oil production, estimating that it will fall both this year and next suggesting that the days of huge growth in production from shale are over. Bethany McLean. FILE - In this Friday, June 12, 2020 file photo, a nurse uses a swab to perform a coronavirus test in Salt Lake City. Fractivism: Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds, A Moderate Proposal: Nationalize The Fossil Fuel Industry, https://media.blubrry.com/belabored/dissentmagazine.org/mp3/24HotBothered.mp3. But they wont fix its fundamental problem with profitability. Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. She has suggestions for how to approach the problem. A college student in Indiana died in her dorm room after testing positive for the coronavirus, school officials and her family said. Otherwise, the ILPA warned in a previous letter, there would be significant harm not only to employees that see their hours reduced or jobs eliminated, but also significantly reduced returns to the institutions providing retirement security through pensions, insurance policies and other investments that serve hundreds of thousands of Americans. To make matters worse, ILPA added, provisions in many private-equity investments allow private-equity firms to make additional capital calls when times are tough. The total number of . Deaths, active cases . She co-authored a book on the 2008 financial crisis titled All the Devils Are Here. Like the big banks in 2008, private equity is holding us all hostage. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and co-author of the Enron book The Smartest Guys in the Room. Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. Has its bubble finally burst? Private equity, of course, came of age in the 1980s, when greed was good and private-equity titans like KKRs Henry Kravis first burst into the limelight by taking over famed American manufacturers like RJR Nabisco. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and co-author of the Enron book The Smartest Guys in the Room. Nocera is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and co-author of Indentured, about the NCAA. No food or drink for one hour prior to testing. Like so many other facets of the COVID-19 crisis, however, this unprecedented crash exposed long-running cracks in the facade. Its thanks to those who are able to contribute that were able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. So if Blackstones investments crater, the teachers, firefighters, and health care workers who are counting on those investments to generate the returns necessary to pay their pensions will suffer. Its thanks to those who are able to contribute that were able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. The industrys total assets under management have hit a record $4.1 trillion. The industrys $1.5 trillion in cash on hand is also the highest on recordand more than double what it was five years ago, according to Preqin. She was previously married to Christopher Roberts Wilford. Almost everything thats happened since 2008 has tilted in their favor. In this episode, McLeanwho has tracked the industrys shaky footing for yearstraces the ups and downs of the industry from the 1970s to 2008 to today, and assesses whether a new recession will speed the transition away from fossil fuelsor hand oil barons a life raft. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. Given how much of the economy will rise and fall on the investments that private-equity funds manage, we may be forced to let them share the federal handout. Certainly, President Trump, who has staked so much on the American shale industry, wants to save it. MCHD offers free COVID-19 (PCR) testing every Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am-12pm inside the McLean County Health Department building, 200 W. Front Street in downtown Bloomington, Room 400E. governor announced on Tuesday that he will convene a grand jury to investigate "crimes and wrongdoing" related to COVID-19 vaccines. Thats because one big source of funding didnt dry up: private equity. By now, it should be abundantly clear that the current shale oil business model does not work even for the very best companies in the industry, the investment firm SailingStone Capital Partners explained in a recent note. The big banks emerged from the financial crisis victorious, but also subject to a host of new regulations designed to reduce leverage and stabilize the economy. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Private-equity managers won the financial crisis, as Bloomberg put it last fall. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. [12], McLean married Chris Wilford in 2000 and divorced in 2006. In September 2015, she published Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants which examines the governance and financial situation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seven years after the 2008 financial crisis. Even so, he told me, a large number of private-equity firms ignored that guidance and decided to put very high levels of leverage on their portfolio companies. Maybe those firms should now be required to contribute more equity from their cash stockpiles, he suggests. Never mind that they often overpaid for the companies they acquired, and loaded them up with so much debt that even a mild economic downturn could make it nearly impossible for those companies to repay their loans, as Fortune put it. "[3] The article noted some irregularities in Enron's financial documents that were available to the public, suggesting the company's then-record high stock price was unjustified but she did not at that point suspect fraud at Enron. She is a writer, known for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Independent Lens (1999) and PBS NewsHour (1975). Months into the outbreak, no one really knows how well many of the screening tests work, and experts at top medical centers say it is time to do the studies to find out. To keep growing, companies have to keep plowing billions back into the ground. This kind of rewrites the economics of oil trading.. The fracking boom that drove a decade of record U.S. oil and gas production was never really profitable to begin with. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous . In early 2015, the hedge fund manager David Einhorn announced at an investment conference that he had looked at the financial statements of 16 publicly traded shale producers and found that from 2006 to 2014, they spent $80 billion more than they received from selling oil. We really need Trump to do something or hes going to lose all the energy states in this election, Mr. Sheffield told CNBC in late March. Actually, no. As early as 2018, some investors had begun to tell companies that they wanted to see free cash flow, and that they were tired of compensation models that rewarded executives with rich paydays for increasing production, but failed to take profits into account. How concerning are things like long covid and reinfections? Bethany Lee McLean (born December 12, 1970) is an American journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine. COVID-19 in McLean County for the week ending 3-3-23 - New Cases (2-23-23 to 3-1-23):129; New Hospitalizations (2-22-23 to 2-28-23):10 ; McLean Countys COVID-19 Community Level is LOW: When Community Level is LOW: Stay up to date on vaccinations, Get tested if you have symptoms. (Many of the companies owned by mammoth private-equity firms like Blackstone are too big on their own to qualify for this bucket of money.). The man who shot his girlfriend and five relatives at a birthday celebration had "control issues". Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How Its Changing the World., stocks that make up the S.&P. 2 FOR DRIVE-THRU TESTING RESULTS: Lab samples are sent to an off-site laboratory and results may take 1 to 2 days or even longer in some instances or in times of peak demand. Copyright 2023 Click2Houston.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. Confirmed case data are from the Department of Public Health's communicable disease surveillance database. Smithfield Foods. After the United States engaged in a high-stakes negotiation with Russia and Saudi Arabia to curtail production, a tentative deal was struck on Thursday. A journalist profiles the developers and devotees who have aided the rise of cybercurrency. But it doesnt have to be a blank check. Blame Congress for the meltdown, not Goldman Sachs. Blackstones Schwarzman has ties to Trump. Archive Wall Street Too Big to Fail, COVID-19 Edition: How Private Equity Is Winning the Coronavirus Crisis April 9, 2020 From the. Jack Ewings Faster, Higher, Farther is more than the story of a scandal. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. The taxpayer handouts will also help private equity continue its relentless march through the global economy, snapping up troubled companies at bargain prices or extending high-priced credit as other investors, including hedge funds, are forced to sell off their holdings in the post-corona landscape. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and co-author of the Enron book The Smartest Guys in the Room. By early 2019, America was the worlds largest producer of crude oil, surpassing both Saudi Arabia and Russia. At least 1 in 303 residents have died from the coronavirus, a total of 2,512 deaths. Unlike venture capitalists, who provide start-up funds to new companies, private-equity firms generally take over existing businesses, usually by borrowing large sums of money. Waters, in her letter, argues for placing even more strings on the money taken by private-equity-backed companies. Bethany College will continue to adapt and collaborate as needed to encourage vaccines and boosters for staff and students. According to the CARES Act, companies can only receive loans from the Small Business Administration if they commit to preserving jobs. Portfolio, a Penguin Random House imprint, announced Wednesday that the two had reached an agreement for a news-breaking, character-driven narrative revealing the forces that rendered critical American institutions ill-equipped to cope with the deadliest pandemic since the 1918 Spanish flu and the economic consequences of that failure.The title and release date have not yet been determined. Copyright 2023 WSLS.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. Fracking, they said, was just manufacturing, in which process and human intelligence could reduce costs and conquer geology. As a group of scientists who study virusesexplains, Theres no reason, at least biologically, that the virus wont continue to evolve.From a different angle, the science writer David Quammen surveys some of the highly effective tools and techniques that are now available for studying Covid and other viruses, but notes that such knowledge alone wont blunt the danger. NEW YORK (AP) Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. In 2019, Mclean launched a podcast titled Making a Killing on Luminary. And why not? Dont hesitate: sign up on Patreon today. All rights reserved. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the cutting-edge . The industrys boosters argue that technological gains, such as drilling ever bigger wells, and clustering wells more tightly together to reduce the cost of moving equipment, eventually would lead to a gusher of profits. 1 FOR PHARMACISTS PRESCRIBING PAXLOVID: This service is available in all locations, with the exception of those in New Hampshire. Manage all aspects of the daily operation for Ham Conversion, processing up to 1.5 million lbs/day . Now, it has been shut off. In the Season One finale of Making A Killing, Bethany brings back her friend, colleague and co-author Joe Nocera (Bloomberg Opinion columnist and creator of The Shrink Next Door podcast) to bookend the season with a lively analysis of the former head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault S.A., Carlos Ghosn. Veuer's Tony Spitz has the details. In 2019, the American Investment Council (AIC), a lobbying group which represents private-equity giants like Blackstone, the Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management, and KKR, declared that in order to continue to provide the benefits they guarantee, pensions must continue to invest in private equity.. [1] It details how the financial crisis bubbled up from a volatile, and bipartisan, mixture of government meddling and laissez-faire. Previous assignments include editor-at-large, columnist for Fortune, and a contributor to Slate. She is known for her writing on the Enron scandal and the 2008 financial crisis. Investors in the equity of these companies have already seen the value of their holdings decimated. Whiting Petroleum, whose stock once traded for $150 a share, filed for bankruptcy. Thanks to all the cheap money made available by the Fed, companies owned by private-equity firms could simply refinance their debts at lower rates, thereby getting a fresh lease on life. In each of the past four years, according to data-provider Preqin, private-capital managers raised over $500 billion of new money to invest. Infuriatingly enough, the financial crisis in 2008 might even have saved private-equity firms from their sins. After Enron's rapid collapse later in 2001, McLean co-authored the book The Smartest Guys in the Room (2003) which detailed the corrupt business practices of Enron officials. Some of it has been packaged into so-called collateralized loan obligations, pieces of which are held by hedge funds. By Bess Levin . Fueled by debt and years of easy credit, Americas energy boom is on shaky footing. Free COVID-19 testing is available at the McLean County Health Department from 9 a.m. to noon every Tuesday and Wednesday in Room 400E of the MCHD building at 200 W. Front St. in Bloomington. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career Is there any chance this could lead to prison time? There were rumblings that shale companies would seek a federal lifeline. Well continue to work with the administration and Congress to request that federal programs support all businesses, regardless of ownership structure, and their workers, says the AICs CEO, Drew Maloney. 500 energy sector fell, questions weve gathered from readers recently, adequate research and support for sufferers, according to the law firm Haynes and Boone. This is late 80s bad, a close observer of the industry says. This week, Ms. McLean begins promoting her new book, "All the Devils are Here," about the current financial crisis. If you need help with the Public File, call (713) 778-4745. [13][14][15] They divorced in 2020. We need private equity, we need more of it, and we need it now, chief investment officer Ben Meng said in early 2019right before CalPERS hired a former private-equity guy, who began his career at Goldman Sachs, to head its private-equity efforts. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. sure to go down in history as one of the wildest business stories ever. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Tar Heel, North Carolina, United States. This location, as with the other County contracted medical sheltering sites, will accept individuals from the local community that are referred through DPH. Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more. Americas energy independence was an illusion created by cheap debt. As a result, fracking stocks badly underperformed the market. Beleaguered pension funds, which suffered big losses in the financial crisis, could no longer count on decent returns from fixed investments, given how low interest rates have been kept by the Fed. Increasingly desperate to boost the portfolios of retiring workers, they too turned to private equity as their saviorurged on by private equitys promises that it alone could deliver the necessary returns. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Here are some tips. Thanks to the $2 trillion bipartisan bailout bill, the industrys coronavirus losses will belong to all of us. in English and mathematics from Williams College. Yet an exemption for the private-equity industry did not make its way into the CARES Act; according to Bloomberg, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to pass a $250 billion boost to the PPPwithout provisions opening it to private-equity-backed companies. Was Tiffany involved? On March 9, the price of oil plunged by almost a third, its steepest one-day drop in almost 30 years. Investors were willing to do this only as long as oil prices, which are not under Americas control, were high and when they believed that one day, profits would materialize. The value of West Texas Intermediate crude, a U.S. benchmark, dipped below zero for a few hourstrading as low as negative $40 a barrel. David Wallace Wells writes that by one estimate. Over the past 10 years, the entire energy industry has issued over $400 billion in high-yield debt. The private-equity industry also wants the companies they have invested in to have access to the $454 billion being doled out through the Treasury, an amount that the Fed said could be leveraged into over $2 trillion. 2023 Cond Nast. Whats more, the Milken Institute reported, even by mid-2018, private equity owned more companies than the number of businesses listed on all of the U.S. stock exchanges combined, and have accounted for a more significant source of financing than initial public offerings in many recent years. But among those angling for a federal handout is one of the wealthiest sectors of the American economy: private equity. [citation needed] She began as a contributor to Slate's Moneybox column, in 2010 and "The Bulldog" column in Fortune. Americas largest public pension plan, the California Public Employees Retirement System, or CalPERS, put almost $7 billion into private equity during the 2018-2019 fiscal year, according to Institutional Investor. More than 100,000 people already have died in this country from the virus. Policymakers who wanted to tout energy independence disregarded all this, even as investors were starting to lose patience. On April 20, oil prices did something theyve never done before. So the era of low interest rates, which began with former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and continues to this day, has been a huge boon to private-equity firms. Nocera and McLean writing book on U.S. coronavirus response By The Associated Press June 24, 2020 NEW YORK (AP) Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. Previous to her current roles, McLean was an editor-at-large at Fortune Magazine. Rasmussen points out that after the financial crisis in 2008, the Federal Reserve set a limit on the amount of debt it considered prudent. The half decade from 2013 to 2018 saw the most private-equity deals over any five-year period in American history. That, too, is ending, as investors in such funds have become disillusioned. Until the capital markets began to get suspicious, private equity investors could flip companies they had funded to larger, public companies, making a profitable exit regardless of whether or not the underlying business was making money. Thats a difficult question to answer definitely, writes the Opinion columnist Zeynep Tufekci, because of the lack of adequate research and support for sufferers, as well as confusion about what the condition even is. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. On Thursday's show: The job forecast for the region in 2022, lessons from the collapse of Enron, a conversation with the late Stephen Sondheim, and the best new restaurants from the past year. On March 10, the company announced that it would slash its dividend for the first time since the early 1990s, when Saddam Husseins invasion of Kuwait sent oil prices plummeting. Then came Covid-19, and, on March 8, the sudden and vicious end to the truce between Saudi Arabia and Russia, under which both countries limited production to prop up prices. Because rules for access to this money werent specified in the CARES Act, as ILPA notes, the executive branch will have a fair amount of discretion over who gets access to the moneyand private-equity firms want to take full advantage of that opening. This week, Kate and Daniel talk to Bethany McLean, author most recently of Saudi America: The Truth about Fracking and How It's Changing the World as well as the bestselling The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, with Peter Elkind. The Next Financial Crisis Lurks Underground (Bethany McLean, New York Times), Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream (Bethany McLean, New York Times), Are Crude Oil & Natural Gas Prices Linked? After nearly bringing down the economy in 2008, how is it possible that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still around? Writer: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Looking for more? Restaurants and hotels owned by big chains have already received exemptions granting them access to the relief funds, regardless of how many people their parent companies employ. BLOOMINGTON A total of 208 new COVID-19 cases have been reported by the McLean County Health Department from Jan. 27 through Friday. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and co-author of the Enron book "The Smartest Guys in the Room." Nocera. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers.