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Interviews: I did a couple of interviews this past week.
Fault Lines with Garland Nixon and Lee Stranahan: Untouchable Issues Top Tier Crooks Agree Upon
World Crypto Network with Andy Hoffman: Bitcoin Futures Manipulation (or not) Special Episode
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Welcome to Social Evolution (This might be my favorite article of 2018, by Max Borders, Medium)
What Are We Still Doing in Syria? (National Review)
The American Bipartisan Policy Establishment Declares Its ‘Second Cold War’ vs. Russia After Years of Denying It (The Nation)
Hillary Clinton Chose to Shield a Top Adviser Accused of Harassment in 2008 (What a fraud, The New York Times)
Labour Official Tells Davos, ‘There’s an Anger Building Out There’ (Bloomberg)
Why We’re Underestimating American Collapse (Umair Haque, Medium)
Trace Mayer: Bitcoin Can Become Reserve Asset (Excellent interview, The Epoch Times)
David Frum Didn’t Seem Very Keen on Answering Questions About the Iraq War in His Reddit AMA (Spin)\
Tronc Is Building A Shadow Newsroom Full Of Scabs, L.A. Times Staffers Fear (What’s going on at the LA Times is wild, Huffington Post)
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How the Establishment Undermines American Democracy (Strategic Culture Foundation)
Montana Becomes First State To Set Its Own Net Neutrality Rules (Huffington Post)
Gaius Publius: Democrats Laying Their Own Bonfire (Naked Capitalism)
NSA Deletes “Honesty” and “Openness” from Core Values (The Intercept)
House Intel Denied Senate Intel Committee Access to Surveillance Memo (The Hill)
Schumer Comes Under Fire Over Funding Deal (The Hill)
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Spain Seeks to Block Puigdemont Becoming Leader of Catalonia (Reuters)
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Bitcoin Is Booming in Nigeria as Both Business Users and Speculators Rush in (Quartz)
Yes, Bitcoin Is a Means of Payment. Just Not Yet for You (Bloomberg)
Rapper 50 Cent Is Now a Bitcoin Millionaire (CoinDesk)
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Harvard’s Endowment Is Profiting From Puerto Rico’s Debt as the Island’s Schools Face Crippling Cuts
David Dayen
January 25 2018, 11:34 a.m.
Members of the Puerto Rican diaspora have joined student activists and financial reform groups in a weeklong campaign to target university endowments profiting from Puerto Rican debt.
At Harvard University on Wednesday, the coalition called on the institution’s $37 billion endowment, the world’s largest, to divest from its $2 billion commitment with the Baupost Group. In October, The Intercept identified Baupost, a Boston-based hedge fund managed by billionaire Seth Klarman, as a large holder of one type of Puerto Rican debt. The fund had been hiding $911 million in COFINA bonds, a debt instrument backed by sales tax receipts, through a shell corporation named Decagon Holdings.
A disclosure last week from the COFINA bondholders said that Baupost’s investment had increased to $931 million. Klarman has consistently dismissed cries for debt cancellation for Puerto Rico, saying the island would be better off in the long run repaying its debts. Baupost bought the bonds on the cheap and would reap a huge payday if paid back at face value.
Klarman is a major GOP donor and supporter of the charter school movement; he is also an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump.
Bearing a large banner reading “Harvard Divest from Baupost,” hundreds of activists marched at Harvard Yard on Wednesday. Members of the Harvard Student Labor Action Movement participated in the protest, along with union groups, community organizers affiliated with the Center for Popular Democracy, and anti-hedge fund activists with the coalition Hedge Clippers.
Princeton ($995 million) and Yale ($710 million) currently have large investments in Baupost, according to filings with the IRS. Other colleges that have invested with Baupost in the past five years include Cornell, Barnard, Berklee College of Music, Brandeis, Clark University, Denison University, Holy Cross, Pomona, and the University of Chicago.
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/25/harvards-endowment-is-profiting-from-puerto-rican-debt-as-the-islands-schools-face-crippling-cuts/.