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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.

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Zero Emissions? GM’s Dismal Climate Scorecard

President Biden five years ago hailed GM CEO Mary Barra for leading the world’s EV transformation.

Today, Biden’s climate savior presides over one of the most gas-thirsty vehicle lineups in America. After President Trump’s reelection, GM was also the only major global automaker that couldn’t be bothered to publish a sustainability report.

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Oct 18, 2019 Oakland / CA / USA - The facade of the historic California Hotel, currently restored and operating as low-rental housing; included in the National Register of Historic Places

Morgan Stanley’s Hotel California Credit Fund

A primer for Morgan Stanley clients invested in the firm’s North Haven Private Income Fund — where “semi-liquid” can quickly become “virtually dry.”

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Private Credit: Code Red for U.S. Healthcare

As if U.S. healthcare isn’t dysfunctional enough, the industry’s growing exposure to private credit could eventually make today’s system look like the good old days.

If the model cracks, as many veteran investors predict, the fallout won’t just hit lenders and investors. It will be felt in doctors’ offices, emergency rooms, and patient bills.

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Corporate BS and the Science of Sucking Up

A peer-reviewed study by a Cornell cognitive psychologist suggests employees who embrace corporate buzzwords don’t make the best employees but might be destined for the corner office.

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Private Credit’s “Smartest Guys in the Room”

The history of Wall Street is rife with people who believed they were smarter by half and could engineer risk to near zero. In my lifetime there was Long-Term Capital Management, the hedge fund that employed Nobel Prize–winning economists who believed their mathematical models had tamed market volatility. For a…

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The Web of Jeffrey Epstein’s Lawyers and Bankers

Jeffrey Epstein destroyed lives.

He also did business with some of the most powerful lawyers and banks in America.

Careers fell. Institutions didn’t.

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