In the US, it emerged that a billionaire philanthropist had made good on his promise to give away almost his entire fortune. Charles F. Feeney, 86, made his final grant – $7m to Cornell University – at the end of 2016, bringing his lifetime donations to $8bn, and leaving him with $2m. His largesse (kept …
The successful Republican drive to overhaul the tax code in 2017, resulted in a bonanza of business for Washington’s law and lobby firms. Bolstered by GOP control of Washington, lobbyists saw their business explode grow last year. The prospect of tax legislation and regulatory reform was the big reason why. The 20 largest lobbying firms …
“I did it all myself. For sure, I did it all myself. I never used networks or old college friends On whom the success of so many depends. I went out to work at the age of eighteen Thin as a rake, but determined and lean, And I laid rows of bricks and mixed tons …
Continue reading ‘The cry of the self- made man: I did it all myself (a poem)’ »
In 2016, 36 states joined a lawsuit against Reckitt Benckiser Group that alleged that the company had profited from the opioid crisis and siphoned money from Medicaid. The drug company allegedly worked to preserve its monopolistic hold on profits drawn from its control of addiction treatment drug Suboxone. The 2016 lawsuit in Philadelphia has received …
Continue reading ‘Opioid antidotes and the huge profits they generate’ »
The proportion of university undergraduates studying the liberal arts in the US has fallen by almost 50% since 1970. Business studies is the favourite; up and coming are statistics and data science. The justification for studying the liberal arts – set out several times on this blog over the years – is that they teach …
Continue reading ‘Further education again: the decline of the liberal arts’ »
