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...determined, often by the seat of their pants, how events would unfold. In Too Big to Fail, Sorkin, a New York Times reporter, takes us inside the cozy world of Wall Street chieftains and their Washington alter egos. Why did the U.S. Treasury Department ask Congress for $700 billion in bank-bailout funds? Because $500 billion felt too small and $1 trillion politically impossible; one staffer, charged with justifying the figure, laughed "at the absurdity of it all." Sorkin's meeting-by-meeting account reveals just how close we came to any number of alternate realities: Morgan Stanley going bankrupt...
...would tie the rates the public plan pays health-care providers to what Medicare reimburses. Given that Medicare reimbursement rates can be 30% lower than those paid by private insurers, such a system could be a powerful one at holding down costs and could save the Federal Government $110 billion over 10 years, according to the most recent estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). (The Federal Government's costs here would primarily be the subsidies it gives low- and middle-income people to help pay their premiums.) Not surprisingly, that robust public option faces strong opposition from doctors...
...Services Secretary negotiating with health-care providers to determine how much it would reimburse them. That wouldn't raise as many objections from health-care providers and insurers, but it wouldn't save all that much money either. The CBO estimates it would trim federal spending by about $25 billion over 10 years...
Before Bernie Madoff admitted to running a massive Ponzi scheme, Jeffry Picower was known for being a philanthropist. With about $1 billion in assets, the Picower Foundation, which he started with his wife Barbara, supported causes like neuroscience research at MIT and public education in Florida. The largesse seemed a fitting testament to the Bronx, N.Y., native's ascent from accountant and lawyer to billionaire investor and buyout artist...
Then came Madoff's swindle. Irving Picard, a court-appointed trustee, was charged with recovering the missing money, and Picower, a longtime Madoff friend who reportedly withdrew $7.2 billion over 20 years--including some $5 billion in fake profits--headlined the list of targets. Picard held that an investor of Picower's sophistication had to know something was amiss when his yearly returns went as high as 950%, and he accused Picower of helping Madoff perpetuate the scheme. Picower denied the allegations. His foundation, its endowment crippled, closed up shop...