Jim Kane

yours truly giving the stare of death to someone who had busted out an acoustic guitar inside garland hall.

image of a group of students and faculty outside of garland hall at Johns Hopkins. Signs say "$5.50/hour is not a living wage" and "workers have tight budgets, not Hopkins."

A couple of years ago, someone passed along some early 2000s photos of the living wage campaign at Hopkins. It was a treat to find a young David Harvey looking on in this one.

is amazon threatening an org dependent on its cash? we may never know.

The US tech giant met with Microsoft, Meta, Google and energy industry bodies during an advisory board meeting last month of clean energy buyer and seller group RE-Source, according to several attendees. At the meeting, tech groups present clashed over a proposal by the world’s leading authority on carbon accounting, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, to tighten disclosure rules on power emissions. The reform would likely make it harder for tech groups to suggest data centre growth can be powered by clean energy. Google backed the change. But Amazon sustainability director Jake Oster opposed the move and questioned how his company could justify financing RE-Source without adopting a position on the matter, four attendees told the FT. A representative for WindEurope, one of RE-Source’s co-founders, responded that Oster’s comments sounded like a commercial “threat”, according to two attendees.

www.ft.com/content/4bbd...

"Braudel’s accounts brim with erudition and style but leave us unclear about what actually drives historical developments. They are too broad, or, as Charles Tilly quipped: “broad, broader… Braudel”."

Always read @newlefteviews.bsky.social.

"As far as the managers of private assets are concerned, the “target” in target-date funds is you."

I've been waiting for a Trump EO instructing Mohela to send monthly reminders to union staff that their loans have not been forgiven.

BlackRock, Blackstone Pressed to Detail AI-Driven Energy Profits Recent takeovers of public utilities by BlackRock Inc. and Blackstone Inc. are drawing scrutiny from Democratic US senators, who are asking the firms to show whether they’re profiting from rising ener...

Why the suspicion? They're only buying up utlities AND data centers.

This is a good explanation of why collective investment trusts (CITs) have historically kept the fees on 401(k) target date funds relatively low, but are now primed to be the Trojan horse for private equity and higher fees in target date funds.

Philadelphia Inquirer headline says: “A Montco man, jailed for killing his wife over their cat's vet bills, was denied lifesaving care, suit says”

At no point did I know where the next word in this headline was going

I am very happy to report that my article on the strange non-death of credit rating agencies has been published in New Political Economy.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.....

Banks lend "upstream" to investors backed by existing stakes in other funds.

"Midstream" to the fund and the SPV entities that lend to businesses backed by a pool of loans.

And "downstream" to companies that also borrow from private credit funds.

A few days old now, but this FT piece is an excellent overview of the various ways that banks are entangle with private credit.

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Issues Order Banning Israel Divestment New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued a pair of executive orders aimed at addressing antisemitism, his office said, weeks before Zohran Mamdani takes his place.

"Adams’ executive orders come days after Apollo Global Management Inc.’s Marc Rowan called Mamdani an “enemy” of the Jewish people at a fundraiser."

Lead developer of major Scottish carbon capture project to sell stake Decision raises questions about project’s future and fuels concern over declining industrial base

who could have guessed it, there's no money to be made in capturing carbon

Strong floor, no ceiling.

Exclusive | Sam Altman Has Explored Deal to Build Competitor to Elon Musk’s SpaceX The OpenAI chief executive has looked to put together funds to either acquire or partner with a rocket company.

"Altman has been interested in the possibility of building data centers in space for some time..."

Morgan Stanley Considers Offloading Some of Its Data-Center Exposure Morgan Stanley, one of the key players in financing the artificial-intelligence race, is considering offloading some of its data-center exposure via a so-called significant risk transfer.

Update from the bank that arranged the debt on the Meta data center (among others):

"The bank has held preliminary talks with potential investors about an SRT tied to a portfolio of loans to businesses involved in AI infrastructure..."

"'It speaks volumes about what happened at this restaurant that, given the challenges that the NLRB is facing, that they have chosen to act on this issue,' said Benjy Cannon, Local 25’s communication director, referring to the gridlock the agency has faced since January."

@katearonoff.bsky.social always cuts thru all the noise - a must read

I admit I needed to pour a glass of wine b/c it's just so soon and also so long ago

The $260 Billion Mom-and-Pop Funds Distorting the Credit Market Popular with individual investors, fixed-maturity funds are hoovering up the debt of big companies, reducing borrowing costs but obscuring repayment risk.

The $260 billion fixed-maturity funds sector is supposed to offer investors security. But the chase for yield is taking them into riskier corners of the market.

New York City’s Forgotten Public Bank Plan In 1975, Wall Street declared war on New York, sending the city into a fiscal crisis. A forgotten public banking proposal in the state assembly could have stopped it — and put both the city and the country on the path to socialized finance.

In 1975, Wall Street declared war on New York, sending the city into a fiscal crisis.

A forgotten public banking proposal in the state assembly could have stopped it — and put both the city and the country on the path to socialized finance.

If you're still thinking about what to read over the holiday season – worry not, we've just made your choice even harder!

🎄 Our December issue is out 🎄

Our festive intellectual treats, from the meta-theory of performativity, decarbonization, green finance to the theory of money – check it out!

On behalf of Philadelphia, I'd like to apologize. However, I have to say that the transcripts of Palantir earnings calls are incredible content.

Other schools might have been stung by the drop in crypto prices as well, but to a far lesser extent. Universities reporting crypto holdings in the third quarter also included Brown, with $14 million worth of the BlackRock bitcoin ETF, and Emory, with $52 million of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF.

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Larry's only remaining title is "Epstein correspondent"

12:27 PM | December 2, 25 | reuters.com UPDATE 1-American Economic Association bans Epstein correspondent Summers from involvement with group (Adds background on Summers' career, correspondence with Epstein) By Michael S. Derby Dec 2 (Reuters) - A top economic organization said former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers now has a lifetime ban amid the ongoing fallout from his close association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The American Economic Association said Tuesday it had imposed a lifetime and complete ban on former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers' participation in its activities. The group also said in a statement that Summers had voluntarily resigned from the group. Summers, who served as Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration before returning to Harvard University, has in recent days also exited the board of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, while also pulling back from teaching and other work at Harvard.

‘No! Not Larry Summers!’ Wails Devastated Nation

Sen. Cruz Seeks to Block ESG, DEI Voting in $1 Trillion Federal Retirement Plan The bill would bar BlackRock and State Street from casting any shareholder votes tied to the $1 trillion Thrift Savings Plan

Shareholder primacy without shareholder rights
esgnews.com/sen-cruz-see...

The potential change underlines that the institutions that have long been private equity’s biggest supporters are becoming less valuable as the largest private capital firms roll out newly popular types of funds designed to suit wealthy people. “This is one of the most existential risks facing us,” said the head of private equity at one large US pension fund, referring to the rise of retail vehicles. “This whole new pool of capital that’s huge . . . is going to diminish our importance in the ecosystem.” Other large private equity firms have also recently considered charging some institutions for co-investments, as the flow of fees from wealthy people lessens the need to offer free co-investment opportunities to other clients, according to people in the industry. Some firms have already charged institutions transaction fees on co-investments, one said.

Pensions funds shocked to learn that the PE monsters they created are turning on them.

www.ft.com/content/c258...

External to what?

Perfect. No notes.