10 Sunday Reads

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:

• It’s Time to Break Up Big Medicine: UnitedHealth Group is not an insurer, it’s a platform. And it’s in the crosshairs as Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley propose breaking it apart, severing its pharmacy arm from the rest of the business. (BIG by Matt Stoller)

• Taxpayers spend 22% more per patient to support Medicare Advantage – the private alternative to Medicare that promised to cost less: Medicare Advantage was supposed to find efficiencies, but instead is costing taxpayers an extra $83 billion a year. (The Conversation)  see also Fraud and Fakery at the Country’s Largest Chain of Methadone Clinics: Acadia Healthcare falsifies records at its methadone clinics and enrolls patients who aren’t addicted to opioids, a Times investigation found.. (New York Times)

• No Place for Violence: Reflecting on the Tragic Death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson: No matter how deep our grievances or how righteous our anger may feel, violence has no place in our society. The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is a tragedy that demands our collective condemnation. What happened in New York City was not an act of justice; it was a killing that has left a family. (Health Care Un-Covered)

• The Fraudulence of “Waste, Fraud and Abuse” History repeats itself, the first time as farce, the second as clown show. (Krugman Wonks Out)

• He Investigates the Internet’s Most Vicious Hackers—From a Secret Location: In the increasingly dangerous world of cybercrime, Brian Krebs faces threats, manipulation and the odd chess challenge. (Wall Street Journal)

• The Climate Risk to the Mortgage System: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which backstop most U.S. mortgages, know floods and fires are a growing problem. But little action has been taken. (New York Times)

• How billionaire Charles Koch’s network won a 40-year war to curb regulation: A seismic Supreme Court ruling has ushered in a new era of diminished federal power. The next Trump administration hopes to capitalize on it. (Washington Post)

• January 6th Was a Success: Trump managed to turn his presidency’s darkest day into a political springboard. And now, he’ll seek retribution. (The Bulwark).

• The Billionaire Bully Who Wants to Turn Texas Into a Christian Theocracy: The state’s most powerful figure, Tim Dunn, isn’t an elected official. But behind the scenes, the West Texas oilman is lavishly financing what he regards as a holy war against public education, renewable energy, and non-Christians. (Texas Monthly)

• Pushed to Play: College Football Coaches Routinely Violate Rules Meant to Protect Players: Coaches routinely violate rules meant to protect injured athletes at football powerhouses. (Businessweek)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business this week with Tony Kim, Head of Technology Investing, Fundamental Active Equity at Blackrock. He is manager of the firm’s Technology Opportunities Fund (BGSAX), which has trounced the Nasdaq 100 and the MSCI World Net benchmarks since its inception in June 2000; his new AI-focused fund, the iShares A.I. Innovation and Tech Active ETF, just began trading.

America’s Housing Problem in One Chart

Source: Washington Post

 

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