Business

Drive a car and use smartphone. Reading messages holding a cell phone while driving. Transportation and new automotive technology concept. Infotainment, navigation, multimedia communication device

GM’s $12.8M Love Tap for Spying on Californians

GM CEO Mary Barra has previously raved that California is home to the best technologists. Here’s another reason she’s come to appreciate The Golden State.

Read More
PARIS - OCTOBER 14: Chevrolet Volt front view at the Paris Motor Show 2010 at Porte de Versailles, on October 14, 2010 in Paris, France

Bob Lutz’s Chevy Volt: The Hybrid Before Its Time

Bob Lutz, an auto executive who held senior positions at the Detroit 3 and BMW, saw hybrids as the future.

He championed a vehicle acclaimed for its technology and beloved by its customers. GM abandoned it.

Toyota shared Lutz’s vision—and is cleaning up.

Read More
credit and cashback. Yellow empty plate on the background of scattered dollar bills. flat lay. The concept of investment, bribery and saving money.

Eat the Rich? Not in General Motors’ Boardroom

GM CEO Mary Barra’s record payday of nearly $30 million didn’t happen by accident. Here’s how the board Barra chairs made sure of it.

Read More
Detail of Benjamin Franklin on 100 Dollar BIll

Morgan Stanley: Too Big and Powerful to Regulate

My last conversation with my former client, the late Darryll Bolduc, happened nearly two decades ago, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday. Bolduc, a former Charlotte bond trader who became a whistleblower and ultimately a lawyer representing corporate conscientious objectors, was railing about how the big…

Read More
Lost Creek Trail Area. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Nevada. USA

Lululemon and Ken Paxton’s Frontier Justice

Although it couldn’t happen to a more deserving company, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s disclosure that he’s investigating Lululemon for toxic “forever chemicals” smacks of performance politics.

Paxton’s press release briefly wiped out billions in Lululemon’s market value before any facts were established — violating the principle that even corporations are innocent until proven guilty.

Read More
Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, New York

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Third-Party Repair

Here’s why Deere’s $99 million class action settlement with farmers could become GM CEO Mary Barra’s next major problem after misjudging American demand for electric vehicles.

Read More
portrait of plumber with apprentice repairing pipes

Kimmel and the Elite’s Contempt for Plumbers

America has an elitist hierarchy problem.

The people who build and repair things get mocked.

The people with the résumés are revered.

Jimmy Kimmel’s disrespect for plumbers exposed the disconnect.

Read More
Ancient statue points with index finger at the sky, toned

Oxford Philosophy Majors Shall Inherit the Earth

Here’s why the smartest people in the room right now aren’t the MBAs, quants, or AI evangelists—but two Oxford-trained philosophy majors who appreciated the risks in private credit before anyone else.

One is Eugene Ludwig, the former Comptroller of the Currency under President Clinton. The other is Stephen Diggle, a money manager whose firm made billions betting on the 2007–08 financial crisis.

More than a year ago, Ludwig warned private credit was a “ticking time bomb.” Diggle is now positioned to profit from the implosion of private credit and private equity.

Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Weil—the first to question Enron’s accounting—is raising uncomfortable questions about private credit and private equity valuations.

This story isn’t getting nearly enough attention.

Read More