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. 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. Has its bubble finally burst? [7][8] The Washington Post selected it as one of the best nonfiction books of 2015. The book was later made into the Academy Award-nominated documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. Copyright 2023 WSLS.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. The promised profits havent materialized. Well continue to work with the administration and Congress to request that federal programs support all businesses, regardless of ownership structure, and their workers, says the AICs CEO, Drew Maloney. [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. According to the Institutional Limited Partners Association. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. Actually, no. 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. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. Waters, in her letter, argues for placing even more strings on the money taken by private-equity-backed companies. They subprimed the American energy ecosystem, says a longtime energy market observer. 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. Anyone can read what you share. Demian McLean | The Seattle Times Getting the government out of the housing market would mean saying goodbye to the 30-year mortgage. Hours Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream - The New York Times As for Pelosi, she doesnt want to see companies backed by venture capital excluded from federal relief, given her Silicon Valley constituents. Bethany McLean was born on 12 December 1970 in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA. 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. 1. We could go even further. 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. Its a rich history of a company, and a case study in how a corporate culture can turn toxic. Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more. [12], McLean married Chris Wilford in 2000 and divorced in 2006. But with super-low interest rates, investors in search of yield were still willing to buy debt. Bethany McLean: The Truth about Fracking and How It's Changing - Yahoo! COVID-19 Locations & Demographics - LA County Department of Public Health 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. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the cutting-edge . Confirmed cases include those reported since the beginning of the current active outbreak and may include cases that . Rasmussen points out that after the financial crisis in 2008, the Federal Reserve set a limit on the amount of debt it considered prudent. All thats left to tally is the damage. Mortgages should be used to buy homes, not for refinancing. 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. College student found dead in her dorm after testing positive for [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]. She is known for her writing on the Enron scandal and the 2008 financial crisis. More than 100,000 people already have died in this country from the virus. in English and mathematics from Williams College. As a result, private equity is now wound into the very fabric of our economy. 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. 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. 71 members of Sacramento, California church have coronavirus | The FILE - In this Friday, June 12, 2020 file photo, a nurse uses a swab to perform a coronavirus test in Salt Lake City. 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 . How Screwed Are Donald Trump and His Adult Children, and Other Questions You Might Have About the Staggering Fraud Lawsuit Against Them. In reality, the dream was always an illusion, and its collapse was already underway. 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. Some of it has been packaged into so-called collateralized loan obligations, pieces of which are held by hedge funds. 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. 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. Get COVID-19 vaccine updates from the CDC. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. McLean County reports 182 new COVID cases - pantagraph.com He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. 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. [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. [13][14][15] They divorced in 2020. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous . Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-texas-fracking-layoffs.html. By Bess Levin . Bethany McLean - Contributing Editor - Vanity Fair | LinkedIn She has been married to Sean Murray Berkowitz since May 2008. Elizabeth Holmes Was Found Guilty, But Was She Fundamentally - Forbes Nocera is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and co-author of Indentured, about the NCAA. (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.). The basic reason is that the amount of oil coming out of a fracked well declines steeply after the first year more than 50 percent in year two. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. By Bethany McLean. When will the pandemic end? Previous to her current roles, McLean was an editor-at-large at Fortune Magazine. 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. [16] McLean resides in Chicago with her children. North Dakota Coronavirus Map and Case Count - The New York Times Fracking, they said, was just manufacturing, in which process and human intelligence could reduce costs and conquer geology. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. McLean graduated from Hibbing High School in 1988. Fueled by debt and years of easy credit, Americas energy boom is on shaky footing. Beleaguered pension funds, which suffered big losses in the financial crisis, could no longer count on decent returns from fixed investments, given how low interest rates have been kept by the Fed. 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. In May 2008, she married attorney Sean Berkowitz, the former Director of the United States Department of Justice Enron Task Force. Over the past 10 years, the entire energy industry has issued over $400 billion in high-yield debt. The fracking boom that drove a decade of record U.S. oil and gas production was never really profitable to begin with. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. On the surface, it appears that two unforeseeable and random shocks are threatening our dream. 208 new COVID cases reported in McLean County Thats because one big source of funding didnt dry up: private equity. What could endemic Covid look like? In 2019, Oxy, as its known, topped a competing bid from Chevron and paid $38 billion to take over Anadarko Petroleum, which is one of the major shale companies. Blame Congress for the meltdown, not Goldman Sachs. Dylan Hollingsworth for The New York Times. COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a "Complex and Grave Situation" Inside a Wuhan Lab. Hot & Bothered: Has the Fracking Bubble Finally Burst? with Bethany McLean In 2019, Mclean launched a podcast titled Making a Killing on Luminary. Bethany McLean is a . 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 not all private-equity firms care equally about all of the programs.) A college student in Indiana died in her dorm room after testing positive for the coronavirus, school officials and her family said. Coronavirus Resource Center: Testing and Vaccine Updates - CVS Traders last year at the New York Stock Exchange near the post that trades Anadarko Petroleum and Occidental Petroleum. 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. Energy independence was a fever dream, fed by cheap debt and frothy capital markets. Joe Nocera is a journalist and column writer for Dealbook. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and co-author of the Enron book The Smartest Guys in the Room. Whiting Petroleum, whose stock once traded for $150 a share, filed for bankruptcy. FILE - In this Friday, June 12, 2020 file photo, a nurse uses a swab to perform a coronavirus test in Salt Lake City. 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. He and McLean previously worked together on All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, about the 2008 market crash. 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. Bethany Lee McLean (born December 12, 1970) is an American journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine. 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. And why not? Stopping that will require a creative effort to increase and sustain high levels of vaccination. Nocera is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and co-author of Indentured, about the NCAA. Veuer's Tony Spitz has the details. 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. All thats left to tally is the environmental and financial damage. 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. 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. Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story. 1 FOR PHARMACISTS PRESCRIBING PAXLOVID: This service is available in all locations, with the exception of those in New Hampshire. Is there any chance this could lead to prison time? NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. 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? 500 energy sector fell 20 percent, marking the sectors largest drop on record. No food or drink for one hour prior to testing. We really need Trump to do something or hes going to lose all the energy states in this election, Mr. Sheffield told CNBC in late March. And more! Unfortunately, there isnt really an alternative to providing private equity with federal funds. From 2015 through 2019, private equity firms raised almost $80 billion in funds focused mostly on shale production, according to Barclays. Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. Bethany McLean. All the Devils Are Here - Wikipedia 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.. 2023 Cond Nast. 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. Too Big to Fail, COVID-19 Edition: How Private Equity Is Winning the 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. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career [citation needed] She began as a contributor to Slate's Moneybox column, in 2010 and "The Bulldog" column in Fortune. Whats more, the Milken Institute reported, even by mid-2018, private equity owned more companies than the number of businesses listed on all of the U.S. stock exchanges combined, and have accounted for a more significant source of financing than initial public offerings in many recent years. 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. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. New revelations about how one Trump staffer helped preserve the transfer of powerfrom the forthcoming book on the Biden White House, COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a Complex and Grave Situation Inside a Wuhan Lab. Tar Heel, North Carolina, United States. So the era of low interest rates, which began with former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and continues to this day, has been a huge boon to private-equity firms. (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. 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. on March 2.Read more about the C.D.C . In the five years ending in April, there were 215 bankruptcies for oil and gas companies, involving $130 billion in debt, according to the law firm Haynes and Boone. Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. The fracking boom that drove a decade of record U.S. oil and gas production was never really profitable to begin with. In the first half of 2019, when oil was around $55 a barrel, only a few top-tier companies were profitable. At least 1 in 303 residents have died from the coronavirus, a total of 2,512 deaths. By Bethany McLean Coronavirus May Kill Our Fracking Fever Dream America's energy independence was an illusion created by cheap debt. "Dow 36,000" co-authors stand by book's premise. Confirmed case data are from the Department of Public Health's communicable disease surveillance database. If private equity is handed billions in taxpayer money, it could use some of it to pay themselves hefty fees today, then pocket even more of it down the road, when they sell their portfolio companies and collect their 20% of the taxpayer-enabled gains. If you need help with the Public File, call (713) 778-4745. 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. By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. 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. The immunobiologist Akiko Iwasakiwrites that new vaccines, particular those delivered through the nose, may be part of the answer. Everything You Know About Martin Shkreli Is Wrongor Is It? More than 100,000 people already have died in this country from the virus. 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. The 42 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time, The 25 Best Shows on Netflix to Watch Right Now. Latest trends. She is known for her writing on the Enron scandal and the 2008 financial crisis. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Bethany McLean | Chicago Booth Review About Bethany McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. NEW YORK Business writers Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera are collaborating on a critical take of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic. The industrys lack of profits wasnt exactly a secret. Nocera and McLean writing book on U.S. coronavirus response Previous assignments include editor-at-large, columnist for Fortune, and a contributor to Slate . Has its bubble finally burst? Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. 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. 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. The title and release date have not yet been determined. The active outbreak list is intended to inform the public of the current COVID-19 outbreaks in Los Angeles County. McLean is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and co-author of the Enron book The Smartest Guys in the Room. All rights reserved. [citation needed], She authored an article on Enron for the March 5, 2001, issue of Fortune entitled, "Is Enron Overpriced? Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. She is also a columnist at Yahoo Finance and a contributor to CNBC. Even before the COVID crisis, there were questions about how well private-equity investments were actually performing. She is a writer, known for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Independent Lens (1999) and PBS NewsHour (1975). To keep growing, companies have to keep plowing billions back into the ground. You can see how all of this is playing out by looking at Occidental Petroleum. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. But they wont fix its fundamental problem with profitability. 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.