Lawmakers wanted to reform surprise billing so patients weren’t hit with unexpected charges. But they also created a parallel system with new middlemen that is increasing health care costs.
Private Equity
Posted inEconomic Policy
The AI Bailout Could Be Baked Into the AI Bubble
Private credit companies are key owners of AI-related assets. Many of their parent private equity firms own life insurers that are dumping grounds for bad loans—and subject to state bailouts.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Top Defense Official Could Reap Windfall From DOD Settlement
Stephen Feinberg founded private equity giant Cerberus. A Cerberus-owned firm is poised to settle one of the largest government lawsuits ever—against the very agency Feinberg now helps lead.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Trump Funding Cuts Endangering City and Rural Hospitals Alike
A year after Trump ripped $1 trillion out of the American health care system, hundreds of hospitals have closed and millions of people are without health insurance. The majority are in urban areas.
Posted inTAP
An Unlikely Bipartisan Housing Win
The new housing law is a victory for Democratic agenda-setting, but real impact on housing costs remains elusive.
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
Blackstone’s Utility Gambit in New Mexico Could Slip Away
Both the firm and the utility company it’s trying to take private face potential maximum fines and a hard reset of the acquisition process for flouting New Mexico state law.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Nothing Is Safe From Private Equity Rollups
Is antitrust enforcement equal to the challenge of defeating the most prevalent abuses?
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
Indiana’s Private Equity Power Play
The mother lode of utility buyouts just landed on Hoosiers’ doorstep. Regulators have no say over whether the deal goes through.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Private Credit Cartels
Wall Street wants you to believe AI is to blame for the incipient credit crisis. But the crappy software loans spooking investors are the products of old-economy greed and brazen collusion.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Private Equity’s Great Escape
The industry bought companies for too much money and made a bunch of bad loans. Now they’re scrambling to avoid the reckoning.