What we’re reading (11/29)
“McKinsey Proposed Paying Pharmacy Companies Rebates For OxyContin Overdoses” (New York Times). “When Purdue Pharma agreed last month to plead guilty to criminal charges involving OxyContin, the Justice Department noted the role an unidentified consulting company had played in driving sales of the addictive painkiller even as public outrage grew over widespread overdoses. Documents released last week in a federal bankruptcy court in New York show that the adviser was McKinsey & Company, the world’s most prestigious consulting firm.”
“Investors Pile Into Risky ETFs During Wild Market Rally” (Wall Street Journal). “Investors’ penchant for risk-taking has rejuvenated a volatile and sometimes dangerous group of exchange-traded funds. Leveraged and inverse ETFs have raked in $16.3 billion through the first 10 months of the year, on pace to top 2008’s record haul of $16.7 billion, according to Morningstar. The funds use leverage to double or triple daily returns and sometimes offer investors a chance to profit off the inverse, or opposite, of an index’s move.”
“5 Big Picture Trends Being Accelerated By The Pandemic” (Visual Capitalist). “#1: Screen Life Takes Hold…#2: The Big Consumer Shake-Up [making physical buying ‘frictionless’ and accelerating e-commerce penetration]…#3: Peak Globalization [the flat-lining of global trade/global GDP]…#4: The Wealth Chasm [the richest are richer than ever]…#5: The Flexible Workplace[.]”
“Congress Stalled On Stimulus Talks And Time Is Running Out As Millions Face A ‘Benefits Cliff’” (CNBC). “Millions of jobless Americans are likely eyeing ongoing negotiations in Congress around a new coronavirus relief package with intense interest. Unemployment benefits — namely, the size of a weekly subsidy to benefits — are among the thorny issues that have delayed a deal for months. Congress gave an extra $600 a week to the unemployed as part of the CARES Act relief law signed in March. That aid expired in July.”
“The TikTok Party House Next Door” (Bloomberg). “What is it like to live next to social media influencers? Some wealthy Los Angeles residents are finding out the hard way as homes in their neighborhoods increasingly turn into collab houses, or TikTok mansions — so called because they're rented out by talent management groups and filled with young stars who use them as backdrops for content on the video-sharing platform and similar apps. They’re also the target of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s latest crackdown on house parties, writes Patrick Sisson.”
