By Bess Levin . 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. That means public pensions might be forced to dump their holdings in public-backed investments to provide private-equity firms with emergency casha move that could depress the stock market even further. Bethany McLean. McLean graduated from Hibbing High School in 1988. 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. BLOOMINGTON A total of 208 new COVID-19 cases have been reported by the McLean County Health Department from Jan. 27 through Friday. COVID-19: Medical Sheltering at the Bell Gardens Quality Inn and Suites Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. (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.). 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. A journalist profiles the developers and devotees who have aided the rise of cybercurrency. She resides in Chicago with her children. The politics dictating whether the private-equity industry will get its wishes are surprising. 208 new COVID cases reported in McLean County The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the cutting-edge biotech facility at the center of swirling suspicions about the pandemics onset, was far more troubled than previously known, explosive documents unearthed by a Senate research team reveal. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. 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? Bethany Mclean - KPRC Jack Ewings Faster, Higher, Farther is more than the story of a scandal. James Glassman says his seven-year-old prediction that the Dow Jones industrial average will rise to 36,000 wasn't wrong, just early. BETHANY MCLEAN - wsls.com Blackstones Schwarzman has ties to Trump. The promised profits havent materialized. If you need help with the Public File, call (713) 778-4745. 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. Deaths, active cases . We could also limit the deductibility of interest payments for tax purposes even more than President Donald Trumps new tax law already did, so companies arent encouraged to load up on debt. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. Nocera and McLean writing book on U.S. coronavirus response 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. She is also a columnist at Yahoo Finance and a contributor to CNBC. Even before the coronavirus crisis, the spigot was drying up. The industrys lack of profits wasnt exactly a secret. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Airlines, hotels, and restaurantsall of whose revenues have cratered in the wake of sweeping stay-home ordershave engaged in Hunger Gameslike lobbying to cash in on the CARES Act, making their case for a share of the disaster relief. . The fracking boom that drove a decade of record U.S. oil and gas production was never really profitable to begin with. And more! The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. McLean County reports 182 new COVID cases - pantagraph.com Bethany McLean: The Truth about Fracking and How It's Changing - Yahoo! Previous assignments include editor-at-large, columnist for Fortune, and a contributor to Slate . 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. Unfortunately, there isnt really an alternative to providing private equity with federal funds. Seventy-one members of the Bethany Slavic Missionary Church near Rancho Cordova or people associated with congregation members have been afflicted with the virus, county officials say, making. And why not? Copyright 2023 Click2Houston.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. This week, Ms. McLean begins promoting her new book, "All the Devils are Here," about the current financial crisis. 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. [citation needed] She began as a contributor to Slate's Moneybox column, in 2010 and "The Bulldog" column in Fortune. Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream - The New York Times The SHIELD saliva-based testing is available for all ages. And North American oil and gas drillers have almost $100 billion of debt that is set to mature in the next four years. Driven partly by public pensions, the private-equity industry has mushroomed. Joe Nocera is a journalist and column writer for Dealbook. Tens of thousands of Texans are being laid off in the Permian Basin and other parts of the state, and the whole industry is bracing for worse. Traders last year at the New York Stock Exchange near the post that trades Anadarko Petroleum and Occidental Petroleum. Ms. McLean is the author of Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How Its Changing the World., Ever since the oil shocks of the 1970s, the idea of energy independence, which in its grandest incarnation meant freedom from the worlds oil-rich trouble spots, has been a dream for Democrats and Republicans alike. Confirmed cases include those reported since the beginning of the current active outbreak and may include cases that . On March 9, the price of oil plunged by almost a third, its steepest one-day drop in almost 30 years. The fracking boom that drove a decade of record U.S. oil and gas production was never really profitable to begin with. 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. [1] In 1992 she received a B.A. Americas energy independence was an illusion created by cheap debt. 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 . Ad Choices. Demian McLean | The Seattle Times And President Trump reveled in the rhetoric: We hadnt merely achieved independence, his administration said, but rather energy dominance.. The Big Fail - by Joe Nocera & Bethany McLean (Hardcover) Daily updates from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. The 42 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time, The 25 Best Shows on Netflix to Watch Right Now. By Bethany McLean. Novavax Inc said on Thursday it would require six months to produce a COVID-19 vaccine designed to match whichever coronavirus variants are circulating for an annual immunization program each fall . To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. Not only should taxpayer funds not be used to pay management or consulting firms, she says, but companies that take the money should also, for instance, be required to include workers on their corporate boards and gradually increase their minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. Get COVID-19 vaccine updates from the CDC. Like the big banks in 2008, private equity is holding us all hostage. Americas energy independence was built on an industry that is the very definition of dependent dependent on investors to keeping pouring billions upon billions in capital into money-losing companies to fund their drilling. There are several pots of federal money that the private-equity industry is lobbying to access. Bethany McLean - Wikipedia In 2019, Mclean launched a podcast titled Making a Killing on Luminary. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Fractivism: Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds, A Moderate Proposal: Nationalize The Fossil Fuel Industry, https://media.blubrry.com/belabored/dissentmagazine.org/mp3/24HotBothered.mp3. [1] It details how the financial crisis bubbled up from a volatile, and bipartisan, mixture of government meddling and laissez-faire. As a result, private equity is now wound into the very fabric of our economy. Its essential that we do the same today. Private-equity managers won the financial crisis, as Bloomberg put it last fall. The True Story of the Comey Letter Debacle | Vanity Fair Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-texas-fracking-layoffs.html. 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. It once seemed utterly unattainable until the advent of fracking, which unleashed a torrent of oil. 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. After nearly bringing down the economy in 2008, how is it possible that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still around? 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. Nocera and McLean writing book on U.S. coronavirus response Exclusive: Inside the S--tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition. Copyright 2023 WSLS.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. Was Tiffany involved? Coronavirus Resource Center: Testing and Vaccine Updates - CVS 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.