In the first half of 2019, when oil was around $55 a barrel, only a few top-tier companies were profitable. Previous assignments include editor-at-large, columnist for Fortune, and a contributor to Slate . 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. Now, it has been shut off. On March 10, Scott Sheffield, the chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, a major driller in the Permian Basin, told Bloomberg that U.S. oil output could fall by more than two million barrels per day by next year if prices remain where they are today. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. 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. 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. By early 2019, America was the worlds largest producer of crude oil, surpassing both Saudi Arabia and Russia. Veuer's Tony Spitz has the details. It once seemed utterly unattainable until the advent of fracking, which unleashed a torrent of oil. All rights reserved. [10][11] 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.. Bethany College will continue to adapt and collaborate as needed to encourage vaccines and boosters for staff and students. [1] In 1992 she received a B.A. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. About Bethany McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. No food or drink for one hour prior to testing. Even before the COVID crisis, there were questions about how well private-equity investments were actually performing. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. [17], Last edited on 21 November 2022, at 20:31, "Hibbing grad warns of economic crisis below ground", "What Working At Goldman Sachs Taught Legendary Business Journalist Bethany McLean", "Meet Patrick Byrne: Bitcoin Messiah, CEO of Overstock, Scourge of Wall Street", "BYRNE'S HOT MAIL; OVERSTOCK CHIEF'S TEMPER ERUPTS IN MESSAGES", Financial System's Top Risk, Hiding in Plain Sight, "U.S. mortgage giants under the microscope", "Loughlin, Giannulli lawyer is prosecutors' 'worst nightmare', "Q & A with Bethany McLean, Author of 'All the Devils Are Here', "Enron tale author Bethany McLean has a new book she wrote from her Chicago home", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bethany_McLean&oldid=1123096713, This page was last edited on 21 November 2022, at 20:31. 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.. Its a rich history of a company, and a case study in how a corporate culture can turn toxic. today. How will the virus continue to change? sure to go down in history as one of the wildest business stories ever. "[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. Policymakers who wanted to tout energy independence disregarded all this, even as investors were starting to lose patience. Energy independence was a fever dream, fed by cheap debt and frothy capital markets. A deal, and higher oil prices, might help the industry. 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. By Bess Levin . Manage all aspects of the daily operation for Ham Conversion, processing up to 1.5 million lbs/day . Jack Ewings Faster, Higher, Farther is more than the story of a scandal. But with super-low interest rates, investors in search of yield were still willing to buy debt. 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.. But they wont fix its fundamental problem with profitability. Thanks to the $2 trillion bipartisan bailout bill, the industrys coronavirus losses will belong to all of us. 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. Since that time, Oxys stock has plummeted almost 80 percent in part due to fears that the Anadarko acquisition is going to prove so wildly unprofitable that it sinks the company. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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. She has been married to Sean Murray Berkowitz since May 2008. 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. If you need help with the Public File, call 540-512-1558. Her two books are the The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing. 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. Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story. 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. 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. Its still unclear where most of this debt is held. 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. Dylan Hollingsworth for The New York Times. Paying members will get access to perks like a. by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. She was previously married to Christopher Roberts Wilford. James Glassman says his seven-year-old prediction that the Dow Jones industrial average will rise to 36,000 wasn't wrong, just early. Has its bubble finally burst? By Bethany McLean. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous . Clients who show symptoms of COVID-19 (for example have a fever, cough, or difficulty breathing) and/or are waiting for their test results. The active outbreak list is intended to inform the public of the current COVID-19 outbreaks in Los Angeles County. Dont hesitate: sign up on Patreon today. 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. 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. McLean graduated from Hibbing High School in 1988. (And not all private-equity firms care equally about all of the programs.) All rights reserved. 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. This location, as with the other County contracted medical sheltering sites, will accept individuals from the local community that are referred through DPH. Monday - Friday This week, Ms. McLean begins promoting her new book, "All the Devils are Here," about the current financial crisis. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. [1] It details how the financial crisis bubbled up from a volatile, and bipartisan, mixture of government meddling and laissez-faire. Portfolio, a Penguin Random House imprint . 500 energy sector fell 20 percent, marking the sectors largest drop on record. In May 2008, she married attorney Sean Berkowitz, the former Director of the United States Department of Justice Enron Task Force. 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. As a result, fracking stocks badly underperformed the market. Think of private-equity firms as the banks of the corona crisis: They are, for better or worse, too big to fail. Actually, no. Anyone can read what you share. 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. on March 2.Read more about the C.D.C . Check out the full Hot & Bothered archive here. Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. And President Trump reveled in the rhetoric: We hadnt merely achieved independence, his administration said, but rather energy dominance.. But that didnt seem to matter, because low interest rates facilitated private equity in another way. (This may not surprise anyone who is attempting to be productive while working in close quarters with their children.). You can see how all of this is playing out by looking at Occidental Petroleum. David Wallace Wells writes that by one estimate. Copyright 2023 Click2Houston.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. Ad Choices. 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. 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. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. From 2015 through 2019, private equity firms raised almost $80 billion in funds focused mostly on shale production, according to Barclays. Music: Mercurias Meet Victor Rice, Carregar (Instrumental), courtesy of Total Running Time. 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. 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. 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. Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and 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. 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. Confirmed case data are from the Department of Public Health's communicable disease surveillance database. 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 . And why not? [12], McLean married Chris Wilford in 2000 and divorced in 2006. (Adila Mchich, CME Group), Fractivism: Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds (Sarah Ann Wylie), The Fracktivists (Colin Kinniburgh, Dissent), Kate: A Moderate Proposal: Nationalize The Fossil Fuel Industry (The New Republic), This week, Kate and Daniel talk to Bethany McLean, author most recently of, Saudi America: The Truth about Fracking and How Its Changing the World, The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron, If you like the episode and want to hear more, sign up as a monthly member at. Blame Congress for the meltdown, not Goldman Sachs. We could close that, once and for all. How exactly did the alleged illegal activity go down? Bethany McLean was born on 12 December 1970 in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA. Bethany McLean is a journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair. 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. The socio-economic status of individuals needing . [9], In September 2018, she published Saudi America: The Truth about Fracking and How It's Changing the World which examined the "fracking revolution" and U.S. energy independence. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. Mortgages should be used to buy homes, not for refinancing. Joe Nocera is a journalist and column writer for Dealbook. Recent and archived work by Bethany McLean for The New York Times. Daily updates from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. Its essential that we do the same today. Getting the government out of the housing market would mean saying goodbye to the 30-year mortgage. 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. Bethany McLean. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career Copyright 2023 WSLS.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. 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. Bethany McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the author of "Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It's Changing the World." The Power Law Venture Capital and the . 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. 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. 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. The problem is, existing rules at the Small Business Administration, which is overseeing the program, have been widely interpretedas excludingloaning money to most mom-and-pop businesses that are controlled by large parent companiesincluding private-equity firms. The Next Financial Crisis Lurks Underground, Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream. On the other hand, Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and powerful Representative Maxine Waters, have weighed in loudlyon the industrys behalf. 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. "Dow 36,000" co-authors stand by book's premise. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and co-author of the Enron book "The Smartest Guys in the Room." Nocera. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the cutting-edge . 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. in English and mathematics from Williams College. She is known for her writing on the Enron scandal and the 2008 financial crisis. governor announced on Tuesday that he will convene a grand jury to investigate "crimes and wrongdoing" related to COVID-19 vaccines. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. 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. So why should they be permitted to raid the federal Treasury in a time of crisis? A hydraulic fracturing site in Denton, Texas. 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. 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. If you need help with the Public File, call (713) 778-4745. 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. 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. 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. Nocera is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and co-author of Indentured, about the NCAA. As a result, private equity is now wound into the very fabric of our economy. They have two children. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. Workers monitoring a hydraulic fracturing operation near Wink, Texas. Dec 2020 - Apr 20221 year 5 months. All we know for sure is that fracking company executives and private equity financiers have made a fortune by touting the myth of energy independence and they wont be the ones who have to pick up the pieces., Bethany McLean, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, is the author of Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How Its Changing the World.. The title and release date have not yet been determined. Mnuchin is a former Goldman Sachs executive and hedge fund guy; Blackstones Schwarzman has ties to Trump; Jared Kushners family business has gotten loans from Apollo, according to the Washington Post. . 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. Driven partly by public pensions, the private-equity industry has mushroomed. More than 100,000 people already have died in this country from the virus. But there are ways to make it work better. Private-equity managers won the financial crisis, as Bloomberg put it last fall. McLean was born in Hibbing, Minnesota on December 12, 1970. 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. Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-texas-fracking-layoffs.html. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. All rights reserved. [citation needed], She authored an article on Enron for the March 5, 2001, issue of Fortune entitled, "Is Enron Overpriced? What could endemic Covid look like? The industrys lack of profits wasnt exactly a secret. Bethany Lee McLean (born December 12, 1970) is an American journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine. FILE - In this Friday, June 12, 2020 file photo, a nurse uses a swab to perform a coronavirus test in Salt Lake City. [16] McLean resides in Chicago with her children. By Bethany McLean Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream America's energy independence was an illusion created by cheap debt. I dont think any of us can really believe what we saw today, one industry analyst told AP. David Wallace Wells writes that by one estimate, 100,000 Americans could die each yearfrom the coronavirus. 2023 Cond Nast. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and co-author of the Enron book The Smartest Guys in the Room. Coronavirus outbreaks were reported by the Merced County Department of Public Health at New Bethany Residential Care retirement home in Los Banos and Dutch Bros Coffee. 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. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. On March 9, the price of oil plunged by almost a third, its steepest one-day drop in almost 30 years. 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? Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. At least 1 in 303 residents have died from the coronavirus, a total of 2,512 deaths. Has its bubble finally burst? The SHIELD saliva-based testing is available for all ages. [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]. Looking for more? Bill White wants to restore Americas historical proclivity for balanced budgets. More than 100,000 people already have died in this country from the virus. Are Crude Oil & Natural Gas Prices Linked? By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. [13][14][15] They divorced in 2020. Pension funds that have poured money into private equity firms may take a hit soon, too. 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. We asked three experts two immunologists and an epidemiologist to weigh in on this and some of the hundreds of other questions weve gathered from readers recently, including how to make sense of booster and test timing, recommendations for children, whether getting covid is just inevitable and other pressing queries. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. Click here to take a moment and familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines. Best-selling author Bethany McLean reveals the true story of fracking's impact - on Wall Street, the economy, and geopolitics. Writer: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Paying members will get access to perks like a monthly happy hour with Kate, Daniel, and friends, a free ebook of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos, and much more. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. She has co-authored multiple bestselling books, including The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here. Get COVID-19 vaccine updates from the CDC. She co-authored a book on the 2008 financial crisis titled All the Devils Are Here. 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. Even as the public equity and debt markets grew cautious, drilling continued. But it doesnt have to be a blank check. Unfortunately, there isnt really an alternative to providing private equity with federal funds. There are several pots of federal money that the private-equity industry is lobbying to access. Its thanks to those who are able to contribute that were able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. This is late 80s bad, a close observer of the industry says. Its thanks to those who are able to contribute that were able to make the podcast free for anyone to listen to. She resides in Chicago with her children. 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. Confirmed cases include those reported since the beginning of the current active outbreak and may include cases that . 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. Hot & Bothered is produced by Colin Kinniburgh. Ad Choices. And more! Bethany McLean. The fear, of course, is that private equity will do what private equity does best, which is pocket the money themselves rather than devoting it to the businesses theyve invested in. Exclusive: Inside the S--tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition. 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. [7][8] The Washington Post selected it as one of the best nonfiction books of 2015. In each of the past four years, according to data-provider Preqin, private-capital managers raised over $500 billion of new money to invest. Whiting Petroleum, whose stock once traded for $150 a share, filed for bankruptcy. Archive Wall Street Too Big to Fail, COVID-19 Edition: How Private Equity Is Winning the Coronavirus Crisis April 9, 2020 From the. Moodys, the rating agency, said that in the third quarter of 2019, 91 percent of defaulted U.S. corporate debt was due to oil and gas companies. 1. Latest trends. 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. When will the pandemic end? Americas energy independence was an illusion created by cheap debt. The immunobiologist Akiko Iwasakiwrites that new vaccines, particular those delivered through the nose, may be part of the answer. 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. To keep growing, companies have to keep plowing billions back into the ground. 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. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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