Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Ben Ryder Howe • The Yellowstone Club Billionaires Buying Montana’s Mountains — New York Magazine
But in 2005, U.S. banks and credit card companies lobbied successfully to tighten the terms of bankruptcy, increasing their claims on the future earnings of debtors. For workers and homeowners, bankruptcy leads to forfeiture of property to foreclosing banks or other creditors. Wage earners also lose when corporations use bankruptcy (or the threat
... See moreMichael Hudson • J IS FOR JUNK ECONOMICS: A Guide To Reality In An Age Of Deception
IN FEBRUARY, 1933, the country’s banks began to close. Some 5,500 had already closed in the three years since the Crash. Few of the remaining 13,000 were healthy; they had a total of $6 billion in cash to meet $41 billion in deposits; should a wholesale run begin, they would have to cover the balance by selling securities and mortgages which had by
... See moreRobert A. Caro • The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
Freedom sealed a deal between elected officials and business executives: campaign contributions in exchange for tax cuts and corporate welfare. The numerous scandals of the 1980s exposed the crony capitalism that lay at the heart of Free America.
George Packer • Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal
a database, named Project Alamo, with profiles of over 220 million people in America. It charted all sorts of online and offline behavior, including gun registration, voter registration, credit card and shopping histories, what websites they visit, what car they drive, where they live, and the last time they voted.
Sarah Wynn-Williams • Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
A small band of legislators didn’t live at the Driskill, where the bills were routinely picked up by lobbyists, but at small boardinghouses below the Capitol; the members of this band didn’t accept free lodging from the lobbyists, and they didn’t accept the “Three B’s” (“beefsteak, bourbon and blondes”) which the lobbyists provided to other
... See moreRobert A. Caro • The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson I
For American taxpayers, the Savings and Loans debacle was a hugely expensive lesson in the perils of ill-considered deregulation.
Niall Ferguson • The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition
Sun Capital was able to reacquire Friendly’s free of its pension obligations, without spending anything more than the money it had already lent out. Pensioners lost in this process because their payments were at risk of being cut. Many of the chain’s existing employees lost as well: 63 restaurants closed as part of the bankruptcy process. The Blake
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