Prediction markets. Cryptocurrency. Private credit. Now ETF weirdness, as the WSJ reports. … We’re in uncharted financial territory here, well beyond collateralized debt obligations.
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Headlines of interest: … Youth sports profiteers … Danielle Allen, patriot … Healey defends price gouging … Coming pipeline showdown … Banning Kars4Kids jingle … Markey acknowledges Moulton’s existence
Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed over the past week:
— Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy bemoans the PE takeover of youth sports: “My Son’s Hockey Team and the Crisis of American Resentment” (The Atlantic)
— Harvard professor and former gubernatorial candidate Danielle Allen deserves a medal for helping revive a long neglected classroom subject: “Reports of the Death of Civics Are Greatly Exaggerated” (NYT)
— Let’s see how our new affordability-conscious pols react to this plan: “Energy company proposes big natural gas pipeline expansion in New England” (WBUR)
— She’s basically defending price gouging: “Healey defends $80 World Cup train fare while New York drops shuttle price to $20” (BBJ)
— It’s the wrong reason to ban a jingle that deserves banning for pure annoyance reasons: “Judge Bars Kars4Kids From Broadcasting ‘Misleading’ Ads in California” (NYT)
— Yes, Watertown: “How Watertown built a biotech hub out of long-vacant industrial land” (BBJ)
— She paid gargantuan fees for Google search gimmicks?: “How a Secretive Firm Tried (and Failed) to Fix an Epstein Friend’s Tattered Image” (WSJ)
— The incumbent senator abandons the ignore-him strategy now that a poll shows the race tightening: “Markey and Moulton will debate in August” (WBUR)
And check out last week’s Headlines of Interest, including one on Jack ‘Dude’ Schlossberg.
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Barney Frank, financial crisis hero and curmudgeon’s curmudgeon, RIP
Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, who sadly died on Tuesday, was indeed a hero who deserves enormous credit for helping save the U.S. economy from total collapse during the 2008 financial crisis. At the Globe, former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd (of Dodd-Frank Act fame) remembers working side-by-side with Barney, then the chair of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, during those incredibly tense times. Meanwhile, Dan Kennedy bemoans the passing of Frank amid today’s array of financial-sector worries and woes – and how “there isn’t a Barney Frank in sight.”As for the 2008 financial crisis, I covered those historic events as a business reporter for the Boston Herald and regularly talked to Frank several times a week amid all the political and media chaos. I was always amazed that one of the then busiest and most influential men on the planet actually returned my calls, as he did for other Boston reporters, out of a sense of hometown loyalty (or at least that’s how I perceived it.) I was also always amazed at his brilliant grasp of the issues and ability to quickly summarize what was at stake and where he stood.
But Barney could also be a first-class curmudgeon – and he knew it and didn’t care. He didn’t suffer fools. I’d actually get nervous whenever he called and started off the conversation with a gruff: “It’s Barney. I’m busy. Make it quick.” And you had better be prepared to rattle off the questions quick or he’d get angry. (One Herald colleague swears Barney told him the last time they talked “I never liked you.”) But he always called back, no matter how disastrous the previous interview and no matter if you worked at the Herald. (Gee, I can’t imagine why he’d hate the Herald.) And that transparency was especially key during those dramatic autumn days in 2008.
Known for his sharp wit and legislative skills, Barney Frank will be remembered favorably for a lot of things – his time at City Hall, the State House, and the U.S. House, as well as the fact that he was the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay. But for my money, Frank, a liberal’s liberal, should be remembered most for his work during the 2008 financial crisis – and helping save our economic system from ruin.
Update – 5.21.26 – From Jack Sullivan, another Herald alum: “Cranky, perhaps. But Barney Frank’s accessibility and honesty were a breath of fresh air.”
Update II — 5.21.26 — BU’s Cornelius ‘Con’ Healey emails in a photo and note: “Besides his acerbic wit and searing intelligence, Barney was hopelessly and charmingly disheveled . . . notwithstanding the efforts of admirers trying to help him get it together . . .”
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Wu’s secret war plans revealed …
Fun stuff from Dion. …. Just a thought: A follow-up strike to the south could bag Quincy and Milton as well.Update – I should point out that my Hub Blog tech advisor (i.e. my nephew) originally sent me the Dion link with a suggestion of further expansion: “Annex the Hub of the Universe, why not?” … I initially assumed he was referring to annexing UH — a truly provocative thought. Or was he referring to Hub Blog annexing all of Boston?
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Now this is insider trading
Want to see real insider trading? Check out Larry Edelman’s latest Globe piece: “Breaking bad: Ex-Goodwin Procter lawyer allegedly ran a decadelong insider-trading scheme.” … The feds say he and a pal allegedly traded on M&A info – and it involved dozens of deals. From Larry:
Local deals cited in the indictments include Amazon’s $1.7 billion bid in 2022 for iRobot, the Bedford maker of Roomba vacuums, which it later called off; Johnson & Johnson’s buyout of Cambridge-based Momenta Pharmaceuticals for $6.5 billion in 2020; and IAC’s purchase of Waltham’s Care.com, the online platform for babysitters and other caregivers, for $500 million in 2019.
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Betting on future military action is not ‘insider trading.’ It’s gambling with lives and national security
The WSJ and 60 Minutes (video here) had excellent pieces over the weekend about military insiders using the new “prediction markets” to bet on future military actions by the U.S. – and how they’re giving new meaning to the phrase “war profiteering.” But my complaint is with those who describe the acts as a form of “insider trading,” buying into the farce that prediction markets are “trading in commodities” and in need of firmer regulation by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. … But Kalshi, Polymarket et gang are gambling operations – and everyone knows it except some lawyers and judges who can’t think their way out of legal-definitional corners that they’ve painted themselves into. In fact, military insiders betting on future military actions should be charged with criminal disclosure of classified information, espionage or even treason, not slapped on the wrist by the CFTC. They’re literally gambling with American lives and national security. It’s sick. …Btw: How weird are the prediction markets? Cryptocurrency holders are now empowered to arbitrate some prediction-market “trade” disputes, such as fights over an Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire, as the WSJ reports. … Prediction markets and cryptocurrency combining forces. Quite a pair, huh? There’s got to be a WWE angle here somewhere. Maybe here?
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‘Byzantium’: An old-fashioned book sale find
A while back, the hopeless history buff in me decided to buy a used copy of John Julius Norwich’s ‘Byzantium: The Early Centuries’ at a Hudson Public Library book sale, hauling it and other dusty two-buck specials back to my house, where it proceeded to sit for years on a pile of unread books in my home office. (Yes, a book pile, not a bookcase.) I can’t say I had buyer’s regret, not at $2, but I did feel a little guilty every time I walked past the book pile and there staring up at me was the mosaic portrait of Emperor Justinian on the cover of ‘Byzantium,’ as if beseeching me to give the poor book a chance. “I don’t know why I bought you,” I’d think. “I’m never going to read you. Not at 800 pages.” … But, of course, I eventually did, after one day forcing myself to read Norwich’s introduction in which he charmingly admits he was once a Byzantine Empire dolt like the rest of us and wanted to write a book spreading the word about an underappreciated period in Western history.And it’s all there: Emperor Diocletian’s division of the Roman Empire into East and West, the rise of Constantine the Great, the First Council of Nicaea and the emergence of modern Christianity, the long and critical reign of Justinian I, the transformation of a small outpost city into a magnificent capital of an empire that lasted more than 1,100 years.
For an 800-page book published in 1988, ‘Byzantium’ is a remarkably accessible and easy read, a true “popular history” that the late Sir John Julius Norwich was apparently famous for during his long career. All these years after its publication (and then sitting on my book pile), I can definitely recommend it to others, particularly to fellow book hounds who head straight to the history/biography tables at local library book sales. I’m not sure when, or if, I’ll ever tackle the other books in his Byzantine trilogy. But it was satisfying knocking off at least one of them.
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Headlines of interest: … Wu vs Blacks? … Jack ‘Dude’ Schlossberg … Nvidia’s new Boston fixation… City’s Mean Girl Problem … Autonomous Navy ships … Auctioning off conversion rights … ‘Checkmate in Iran’
Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed over the past week:
— Adrian Walker is rightly skeptical that Black Bostonians are furious en masse at the mayor, as some ‘advocates’ claim: “Just how angry is Black Boston at Mayor Michelle Wu?” (Globe)
— He’s like Dude in The Big Lebowski, living life on his own slacker terms: “Inside Jack Schlossberg’s Chaotic Campaign to Revive Camelot” (NYT)
— It’s partly driven by the emerging local quantum industry: “Nvidia powers up in Boston” (BBJ)
— Hot off the UH wire: “The Boston City Council’s Mean Girl problem” (Universal Hub)
— Keep an eye on this and other local firms dealing with autonomous Navy ships: “Providence defense-tech startup Havoc raises $100M Series A megaround” (BBJ)
— Interesting. They got the residential OK to enhance an auction, not avoid one: “Auction Scheduled for Downtown Office Conversion Property” (Banker & Tradesman)
— They just can’t get their act together: “GOP-endorsed lieutenant governor candidate didn’t collect enough signatures for the ballot” (WBUR)
— I hope he’s wrong but fear he’s right: “Checkmate in Iran” (The Atlantic)
— Fortunately for me, it’s been true: “No One Cares About Your GPA, and More Career Advice for New Grads” (WSJ)
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Downplaying climate change
If Ed Markey and Maura Healey are doing it, you know it’s a trend (or close to a trend), i.e. Democrats downplaying climate change on the campaign trail, something that Matthew Huber (NYT) advises Dems to do in these affordability times. The Globe’s Sam Brodey has more on the magical disappearance of Markey’s Green New Deal. Meanwhile, Commonwealth Beacon’s Jordan Wolfman reports on Healey’s shift to the center on climate change/energy issues. … Re Huber’s Times piece: Gotta love his reference to the “Brahmin Left,” via the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Ah, what the heck. Might as well throw in Shirley Leung and Jon Chesto’s piece on business groups backing Seth Moulton. They’re concerned about the state’s sagging life-science sector. … Sudden passing thought: Is Markey partly reacting to Moulton’s unenrolled voter strategy?
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Targeting a primary problem in Massachusetts: party primaries
The Globe’s Chris Van Buskirk has a good piece on the push to eliminate party primaries in Massachusetts – and how it’s dividing state Democrats. … Did you know that former Gov. Deval Patrick is among those supporting the shift to non-partisan primaries in the state? I’m impressed. But here’s a non-surprise: many progressives (though not all) are against the switch. In a way, can you blame them? They love the current status quo precisely because it gives them a disproportionately large influence over the state Democratic Party — a party that itself represents only 25 percent of enrolled voters and yet controls all six statewide elected offices and 11 Congressional seats while maintaining a super-majority in a Massachusetts Legislature that Dems have dominated since 1959. Today, winning election to an office in Massachusetts increasingly means winning a Dem primary, since the hapless MassGOP regularly doesn’t field candidates in general elections. So, yes, many progressives, such as Robert Kuttner, support the current status quo, even though it has contributed to 51 percent of all elections in Massachusetts going uncontested since 2014.
Do I think non-partisan primaries are the cure-all to the state’s current political and governmental woes? Nope. But it sure would shake things up in a state that desperately needs shaking up. I’ll let Danielle Allen, a Harvard professor and former gubernatorial candidate, explain the main pluses of scrapping the current party-primary system (Globe). … I’ve previously harped on our flawed primary system here and here …
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