A hedge fund buys out a struggling retailer on the verge of bankruptcy. It’s a story told so much it has become a cliché. Naturally, one would expect that the next step is to gut the corporation, rob the employees of their pensions, and sell off whatever tangible and intangible assets they can get a few bucks for. But in 2019 when Elliott Management purchased Barnes & Noble Booksellers for $638 million, something different happened.
Continue reading “Did a Hedge Fund Buyout Finally Go Right?”Category: Essays
Sale-leaseback: Corporations’ New Scheme To Steal American Homes
Maybe you are elderly and on a fixed income, or for some other reason you cannot afford a major increase in your cost of living, but you live in a Midwestern city where the cost of living is traditionally low. You’ve owned your home for years and have plenty of equity, so you should have financial security, right?
Not so fast. Private equity firms and other “property investors” have bought up homes in your neighborhood to flip them and/or rent them out, driving up house prices. Your county assessor raised their appraisal of your home, and now you can’t afford your new property tax bill. But have no fear, the millionaires and billionaires who caused this problem for you are also here to offer a solution.
Continue reading “Sale-leaseback: Corporations’ New Scheme To Steal American Homes”
Why Did Some Schools Reopen Faster During the Pandemic than Others?
I just looooove when non-educators argue with me about education policy. It’s amazing that somebody who watched a 5-minute editorial segment on cable TV thinks they know enough about education in a pandemic to lecture someone who has spent over 200 days teaching during a pandemic. Today’s argument: that schools that “closed” (stayed online) should not have received any federal government funding this year. Let’s break this down.
Continue reading “Why Did Some Schools Reopen Faster During the Pandemic than Others?”The Constitutional Case for the EPA
There has been a lot of attention around President Trump’s director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt. It was clear when Pruitt was appointed that the Trump administration was not taking environmental protection seriously. Pruitt has proved this assumption right by spending taxpayer money frivolously as well as using his post to help his wife find a job. While the Obama administration took the EPA’s responsibilities more seriously than this administration, it had its own share of failures, including taking 10 months to act on information that the city of Flint was not properly treating its water to prevent toxic lead contamination. The EPA has needed better direction for a long time. Let’s explore why that is so important. Continue reading “The Constitutional Case for the EPA”
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