If you need help with the Public File, call 540-512-1558. Copyright 2023 WSLS.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. The immunobiologist Akiko Iwasakiwrites that new vaccines, particular those delivered through the nose, may be part of the answer. sure to go down in history as one of the wildest business stories ever. Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. 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. This is late 80s bad, a close observer of the industry says. On the other hand, Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and powerful Representative Maxine Waters, have weighed in loudlyon the industrys behalf. 1. COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a "Complex and Grave Situation" Inside a Wuhan Lab. A college student in Indiana died in her dorm room after testing positive for the coronavirus, school officials and her family said. Infuriatingly enough, the financial crisis in 2008 might even have saved private-equity firms from their sins. The man who shot his girlfriend and five relatives at a birthday celebration had "control issues". 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.. Hours Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. They subprimed the American energy ecosystem, says a longtime energy market observer. But that didnt seem to matter, because low interest rates facilitated private equity in another way. Thats because oil fracking has never been financially viable. 2023 Cond Nast. Dylan Hollingsworth for The New York Times. Previous to her current roles, McLean was an editor-at-large at Fortune Magazine. Workers monitoring a hydraulic fracturing operation near Wink, Texas. Music: Mercurias Meet Victor Rice, Carregar (Instrumental), courtesy of Total Running Time. 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. Now, it has been shut off. 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. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. According to Dan Rasmussen, the founder of Verdad Advisers, private-equity firms typically double the amount of debt relative to profits on a companys balance sheet. By Bethany McLean Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream America's energy independence was an illusion created by cheap debt. Unfortunately, there isnt really an alternative to providing private equity with federal funds. governor announced on Tuesday that he will convene a grand jury to investigate "crimes and wrongdoing" related to COVID-19 vaccines. Regarding another ongoing Covid danger, that of reinfections, a virologist sets the record straight: There has yet to be a variant that negates the benefits of vaccines.. Her two books are the The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing. I dont think any of us can really believe what we saw today, one industry analyst told AP. She has co-authored multiple bestselling books, including The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here. In May 2008, she married attorney Sean Berkowitz, the former Director of the United States Department of Justice Enron Task Force. 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. [7][8] The Washington Post selected it as one of the best nonfiction books of 2015. No food or drink for one hour prior to testing. One is the so-called Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), set up to make $349 billion in government-guaranteed loans available to businesses with fewer than 500 employees. On the surface, it appears that two unforeseeable and random shocks are threatening our dream. Energy independence was a fever dream, fed by cheap debt and frothy capital markets. Almost everything thats happened since 2008 has tilted in their favor. Tar Heel, North Carolina, United States. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career [citation needed], She authored an article on Enron for the March 5, 2001, issue of Fortune entitled, "Is Enron Overpriced? 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. [16] McLean resides in Chicago with her children. They have two children. Confirmed case data are from the Department of Public Health's communicable disease surveillance database. The reason is as simple as it is galling: while great private fortunes, such as that of Blackstones Stephen Schwarzman (net worth: $17.5 billion and Apollos Leon Black ($7.5 billion), have been made from private equitys march through the world, its losses, to a remarkable degree, will belong to all of us. According to the CARES Act, companies can only receive loans from the Small Business Administration if they commit to preserving jobs. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer), (Rick Bowmer, Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. 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. Even as the public equity and debt markets grew cautious, drilling continued. January 2022 was the month with the highest average cases, while November 2020 was the month with the highest . Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How Its Changing the World., stocks that make up the S.&P. How Screwed Are Donald Trump and His Adult Children, and Other Questions You Might Have About the Staggering Fraud Lawsuit Against Them. 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. The half decade from 2013 to 2018 saw the most private-equity deals over any five-year period in American history. Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. Best-selling author Bethany McLean reveals the true story of fracking's impact - on Wall Street, the economy, and geopolitics. A loophole in the tax code currently allows private-equity financiers to pay taxes on their returns at the lower rate for capital gains, rather than the higher rate for personal income. Bethany McLean is a . 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. The key issue is the parent child problem. When wells are clustered tightly together, with so-called child wells drilled around the parent, the wells interfere with one another, resulting in less oil, not more. Bethany Nesbitt, 20, was found dead in a residence hall at. Private equity financiers typically get a 2 percent management fee on funds they can raise, so they are incentivized to take all the money that pension funds, desperate for returns to shore up their promises to retirees, have been willing to give them. So why should they be permitted to raid the federal Treasury in a time of crisis? She is also a columnist at Yahoo Finance and a contributor to CNBC. The politics dictating whether the private-equity industry will get its wishes are surprising. Even before the coronavirus crisis, the spigot was drying up. By Bess Levin . Recent and archived work by Bethany McLean for The New York Times. 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? TDD: (800) 526-0844 The SHIELD saliva-based testing is available for all ages. Fracking, they said, was just manufacturing, in which process and human intelligence could reduce costs and conquer geology. 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. 500 energy sector fell 20 percent, marking the sectors largest drop on record. In the Haynesville and the Utica Shales, two major natural gas plays, over half of the drilling is being done by private equity-backed companies; in the oil-rich Permian Basin, its about a quarter of the drilling. 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. By early 2019, America was the worlds largest producer of crude oil, surpassing both Saudi Arabia and Russia. All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis is a nonfiction book by authors Bethany McLean and Joseph Nocera about the 2008 financial crisis. The 42 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time, The 25 Best Shows on Netflix to Watch Right Now. 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 a January 4 opinion piece for the New York Times, Bethany McLean had this to say about the outcome of the Elizabeth Holmes trial: "A jury's verdict is black-and-white, but the real story is . Which explains why ILPA wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell last week, arguing that companies backed by private equity should be allowed to access the relief funds provided in the CARES Act. Colombias Amazing Race to Build a $1,000 Ventilator Frontline Doctors Race to Learn the Mysteries of Coronavirus How Dr. Anthony Faucis Media Strategy Is Revolutionizing Coronavirus Messaging Can Americas Crowd-Driven Spectacles Return for the Fall Season? From the Archive: Following the Psychological Contagion That Fed the 2014 Ebola Outbreak. 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. More than 100,000 people already have died in this country from the virus. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. But they wont fix its fundamental problem with profitability. All thats left to tally is the damage. 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. It is absolutely imperative, Waters recently wrote in support of private equity, that the reliefbe extended to protect all workers, irrespective of the affiliations of their employers. Translation: Workers shouldnt suffer just because their bosses sold a controlling stake in their businesses to a bunch of greedy fat cats. Daily updates from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. The typical fee structure in private equity is the so-called 2 and 20, which means that a fund collects a fee of 2% of the total assets it manages, as well as 20% of any gains on its investments after a certain return is achieved. The technology of fracking in shale rock - particularly in the Permian Basin in Texas - has transformed America into the world's top producer of both oil and natural gas. When will the pandemic end? And more! She is the co-author of the 2003 book, "The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron," which was the basis for the Academy Award-nominated documentary of the same name. These firms not only have a record $1.5 trillion in cash on the sidelines, waiting to be invested, but their CEOs are among Americas richest executives. Its essential that we do the same today. That, too, is ending, as investors in such funds have become disillusioned. She is known for her writing on the Enron scandal and the 2008 financial crisis. 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. Ever since Congress voted to hand out $2 trillion in taxpayer money to those hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, American businesses have been scrambling for a piece of the action. What could endemic Covid look like? In 2018, according to analytics firm eVestment, pension funds in the U.S. and the U.K. pumped 27% of their fresh allocations of money into private-equity funds, up from 25% the year before. [1] In 1992 she received a B.A. If you need help with the Public File, call (713) 778-4745. Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story. The book was later made into the Academy Award-nominated documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Latest trends. The total number of . Copyright 2023 Click2Houston.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. There were rumblings that shale companies would seek a federal lifeline. Are Crude Oil & Natural Gas Prices Linked? Bethany McLean is a journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair. Monday - Friday [13][14][15] They divorced in 2020. Driven partly by public pensions, the private-equity industry has mushroomed. As a result, fracking stocks badly underperformed the market. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the cutting-edge . Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more. Looking for more? in English and mathematics from Williams College. Exclusive: Inside the S--tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition. [10][11] By Patrick Semansky/AP Photo (Mnuchin); By Mark Wilson (Pelosi), Jason Alden (Shwarzman), Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg (Black), by Johannes EISELE/AFP (stocks), by Christina Horsten (tents), by John Nacion (ambulance); All from Getty Images. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. Is there any chance this could lead to prison time? At least 1 in 303 residents have died from the coronavirus, a total of 2,512 deaths. According to the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), a lobbying group which represents CalPERs and other public investors, businesses backed by private equity employ more than 8.8 million Americans at over 35,000 companies, accounting for a staggering 5% of the United States GDP. The allies of private equity hope that similar exemptions will soon be forthcoming for their firms.We are in a wait-and-see mode, Chris Hayes, the ILPAs senior policy counsel, told me. McLean was born in Hibbing, Minnesota on December 12, 1970. [4], In 2005, McLean got into a spat with then-CEO of Overstock.com Patrick M. Byrne after she wrote a negative article about Overstock and him.[5][6]. The Next Financial Crisis Lurks Underground, Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream. Get COVID-19 vaccine updates from the CDC. 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 industry also quietly helps itself to yet more money by having portfolio companies pay fees for consulting and financing services provided by, of course, their private-equity backers. Fueled by debt and years of easy credit, Americas energy boom is on shaky footing. 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. 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. 1 FOR PHARMACISTS PRESCRIBING PAXLOVID: This service is available in all locations, with the exception of those in New Hampshire. 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. You can see how all of this is playing out by looking at Occidental Petroleum. Bill White wants to restore Americas historical proclivity for balanced budgets. She has been married to Sean Murray Berkowitz since May 2008. 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. Has its bubble finally burst? Ad Choices. 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 200 W Front StreetBloomington, IL 61701Phone: (309) 888-5450 HoursMonday - Friday8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. "[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. 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. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. Thats because some of the major investors in private-equity funds are public pension plans; at Blackstone, roughly one-third of the firms money comes from retirement plans set up to provide for over 30 million working-class Americans, according to someone with knowledge of its portfolio. But there are ways to make it work better. We asked three experts two immunologists and an epidemiologist to weigh in on this and some of the hundreds of other, Thats a difficult question to answer definitely, writes the Opinion columnist Zeynep Tufekci, because of the lack of.
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