Investigative Economics

Investigative Economics is on hiatus for the rest of the summer with a potential for a story or two to be published before September. In the meantime, here are more recent story updates:In February, The Washington Post conceded the beepocalypse—the largescale collapse of honeybee populations related to colony collapse disorder akin to “bee AIDS”—was all hype. This lines up with what Investigative Economics published in April of last year that showed no real collapse in honeybee populations except for those following the decline in subsidies for honey production. Readers familiar with our story on the climate warming properties of water vapor, otherwise known as humidity, would be interested to read this thorough detail of the E.P.A.’s active avoidance of regulating water vapor as a pollutant by The Honest Broker.Essentially, regulating humidity like carbon dioxide would also be economically destructive, and the agency seems intent on completely skirting the issue.The Washington Post has a recent story about how the Potomac Interceptor had known issues for years with little response from D.C. Water before it broke in one of the largest sewage leaks in U.S. history.That also tracks with our story on the ongoing bacteria issues of the Anacostia river despite billions being spent. Various reports point to leaking pipes similar to those surrounding the Potomac Interceptor being the source of bacteria on that river as well.The gist is that, while D.C. Water is eager to spend billions on major construction projects where there is plenty of bond money is available, they seem less than eager to deal with longstanding maintenance needs.The recent Investigative Economics story on San Francisco car break-ins quoted district attorney Jenkins saying that, of the 11,000 car break-ins during the first half of the year, few of them were prosecuted.The story is largely about prosecution numbers being unrelated to a supposed loophole in the law, but the 11,000 total car break-ins number quoted by Jenkins deserves skepticism too. For there to be 11,000 car break-ins in half a year, that works out to be over 60 a day (11,000 / (365/2) = 60.2).San Francisco certainly had an issue with car theft, but 60 break-ins per day is hard to fathom. (custom video courtesy of ozavry)Investigative Economics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Investigative Economics at www.investigativeeconomics.org/subscribe

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There’s no associated Investigative Economics story for this podcast episode, but here is some relevant reading on the history of BCCI:* Senate Report on BCCI* House Banking Report on BCCI* The U.K.’s Sandstorm Report on financial audits of BCCI (via Internet Archive), Wikileaks Version* Declassified C.I.A. Files on BCCI* False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, The World’s Most Corrupt Financial Empire (book)Miscellaneous Articles on BCCI (plenty more not included here):* New York Times* Foreign Policy* Washington Post Get full access to Investigative Economics at www.investigativeeconomics.org/subscribe

Investigative Economics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Investigative Economics at www.investigativeeconomics.org/subscribe

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For more on UnitedHealthcare Group (UHG), I highly recommend Matt Stoller’s writing on the subject at Big wherein he details how the FTC under Khan lost an attempt at stopping UHC’s merger with Change Healthcare despite the company’s shady past of repeatedly defrauding Medicare, manipulating stock, and thousands of unfair claim settlement violations among other issues.The judge on the case gave a nonsensical ruling and likely should not have presided over the case considering he owned stock in the company. There’s also more detail about how UHG works around medical loss ratios through consolidation.Investigative Economics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Investigative Economics at www.investigativeeconomics.org/subscribe

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Other stories in this series: Get full access to Investigative Economics at www.investigativeeconomics.org/subscribe

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Note: California announced a plan to preserve Diablo Canyon after this episode was recorded. Get full access to Investigative Economics at www.investigativeeconomics.org/subscribe

Stories covered in this episode: Get full access to Investigative Economics at www.investigativeeconomics.org/subscribe

The first episode of the Investigative Economics podcast covers our recent stories on the high-profile bankruptcies in the renewable energy industry around 2011, when Romney accused the government of picking “losers.” We’ll be covering the following stories: Get full access to Investigative Economics at www.investigativeeconomics.org/subscribe