Excellent @ddayen.bsky.social here

UnitedHealth Has 2,694 Subsidiaries and Affiliates. Is It Too Big to Manage? This behemoth conglomerate might just be too monstrous for its own good.

Great investigation here into UnitedHealth.
Turns out it has 2,694 subsidiaries! And about 20% of its gross revenue comes from companies it also owns.
Co-pub with @dorajfacundo.bsky.social and Patrick Rucker at @capitolforum.bsky.social:
prospect.org/health/2025-...

does it effectively encourage policy via exec orders and law enforcement vs. rulemaking? so you can do a rule and any judge can nix the whole thing, but an exec order needs courts regionally to stop them?

In some ways the US and German economies have swapped place.

The US economy is now hobbled by extreme policy uncertainty, and a waning exorbitant privilege of the USD.

And germany is stoking the fires of domestic demand, and markets are set to flock to Bunds as a key safe asset.

In partnership with FGS Global, join us on April 2nd for a unique virtual event featuring the biggest names in antitrust and competition:

Summary judgment just posted v Meta’s Bob Dylan defense. “Steal a little and they throw you in jail / Steal a lot and they make you king.” - Bob Dylan

“There is no dispute Meta torrented a minimum of 267.4 terabytes of works from known pirated databases to further its GenAI efforts.”

Usually I just do a snarky "read @theprospect.bsky.social, get the news first," but this section in the @nytimes.com's story on the CFPB's staying power actually is totally ripped from me without credit, a month after I broke the news.
(NYT left, my story on the right, link below)

The DOGE Czar’s Plan to Loot Medicare Elon Musk’s coup plotters cut their teeth at an obscure Obamacare agency that burned $10 billion testing bogus cost savings initiatives.

Terrific Moe Tkacik piece on Brad Smith, one of the under-the-radar implementers of DOGE, whose previous "government efficiency" gig was eventually proven to be a $10 billion waste of money designed mainly to bring a bunch of unnecessary middlemen into health care:
prospect.org/health/2025-...

Introducing our first round of speakers for the 2025 DCN Next Summit! These digital strategists, tech innovators& business leaders from a variety of companies will convene at our Summit to share their unique insights about where our industry is heading events.digitalcontentnext.org/2025-next-su...

1.1 million pageviews

November was the first month since we started 404 Media where we went over 1 million pageviews. I don't think about traffic nearly as much as I used to but it's a big milestone for us and indicates people are reading and sharing our work. We had gotten close a few times but first time we went over

I'm a proud subscriber - this is an essential news source, throw it some money!

Episode #10: The Democratic Party and Corporate Power with Rep. Chris DeLuzio We went to Capitol Hill to talk with the congressman from Pennsylvania's 17th district about why he outran Kamala Harris in a swing seat.

A new episode of Organized Money is out!
We talked to Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA) about how he won a swing district in western Pennsylvania on the theme of supporting working people and attacking monopolies.
open.substack.com/pub/organize...

Tether Has Become a Massive Money Laundering Tool for Mexican Drug Traffickers, Feds Say Tether is being used on a massive scale by large scale drug traffickers, to the point where Tether is sold cheaper in Mexico due to its links to drugs, according to court records reviewed by 404 Media...

New from 404 Media: the cryptocurrency Tether has become a *massive* money laundering tool for Mexican drug cartels, according to multiple court cases we dug through. The currency so heavily linked to drugs that the price of Tether in Mexico has gone down www.404media.co/tether-has-b...

Biden Asked Microsoft to “Raise the Bar on Cybersecurity.” He May Have Helped Create an Illegal Monopoly. When the White House welcomed Microsoft’s offer of $150 million in tech services, it helped the world’s largest software provider tighten its grip on federal business and freeze out competitors.

"No matter how you wanted to polish the turd, there was the appearance of no-bid contracts.": former Microsoft consultant on the company's White House Offer. By Renee Dudley @propublica.org

www.propublica.org/article/micr...