Corruption, lobbying, corporate malfeasance, and frauds: a weekly unconventional selection of must-read articles by investigative journalist Bethany McLean.
We’ve had well over a decade of lower interest rates than most ever thought was possible. It can feel like free money. But the first rule of economics is that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. We may be just beginning to grapple with the costs of this policy. Or as a recent Axios brief put it, “The Federal Reserve and global central banks are remaking the world’s economy in an effort to save it, but have created something of a monster.”
Well, yes. And even the world’s largest pension fund isn’t sure how to deal with it:
Given the political pressure on the Fed to keep the stock market humming, maybe you can think of low rates as a form of a government incentive. Government incentives are like hammers: A tool that’s used to build, or to destroy. In the case of nursing homes, it might be the latter. “Federal money, through the Medicare and Medicaid systems, has long shaped the nursing home business—and in ways that left it completely vulnerable when the viral pandemic arrived in March.”
Last but not least, my friend Nick Lemann’s book is so worth reading for anyone who wants to understand the business world. Our own ProMarket has an excerpt:
