George Packer's Blog, page 112

A Big Fine, and New Questions, on Deutsche Bank’s “Mirror Trades”

There are more than a few arresting paragraphs in the New York State Department of Financial Services report on Deutsche Bank’s “mirror trades,” which was published this morning. But this one jumped off the page:

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
What Will Become of Federal Public Lands Under Trump?
Additions to the Five Journalistic “W”s
Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, January 31st

“Becoming Warren Buffett,” the Man, Not the Investor

Over the end credits of the new HBO documentary “Becoming Warren Buffett,” we hear the incongruous sound of Buffett singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” in a cracking voice. It’s a nod to a moment, earlier in the film, when Buffett’s daughter, Susie, says that she has a sweet spot for the song because her father used to sing it to her when she was a little girl. And, while it might seem like an odd way to end a film about the world’s most famous investor, it’s actually surprisingly fitting. The documentary, which was made with the coöperation of Buffett and his family, deals with Buffett the businessman and investor, but it’s Buffett the man and his complicated, and often difficult, relationships with the people he loved most that are the film’s real subject.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Many Dangers of Donald Trump’s Executive Order
Why Corporate America Must Stand Up to Trump
Poetry in a Time of Protest

The Tech Resistance to the Trump Refugee Ban

On Friday night, after President Trump signed an executive order closing the U.S. to immigrants from seven largely Muslim countries and refugees from every country, the tech journalist Kara Swisher wrote on Twitter, “Will tech leaders come out strongly and publicly against Trump’s Muslim ban? I’m taking names.” Earlier that day, Mark Zuckerberg had written on Facebook that Trump’s action “would make all Americans less safe by diverting resources, while millions of undocumented folks who don’t pose a threat will live in fear of deportation.” He’d noted, too, that his wife’s parents had been refugees from China and Vietnam. By and large, Zuckerberg’s tone had been polite: he was, he said, “concerned.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Many Dangers of Donald Trump’s Executive Order
Why Corporate America Must Stand Up to Trump
Poetry in a Time of Protest

What Sally Yates Proved About Donald Trump

On Monday, Sally Yates, the acting Attorney General, provided an example of what it means to work honorably for Donald Trump. It comes down to conducting yourself in a way that, in many cases, will result—that you know will result—in not working for him for very long. Trump fired Yates after she refused to deploy Justice Department lawyers in defense of his executive order, issued on Friday, which bans people from seven Muslim-majority countries, and refugees from anywhere in the world, from entering the United States.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Many Dangers of Donald Trump’s Executive Order
Why Corporate America Must Stand Up to Trump
Poetry in a Time of Protest

White House to State Department Dissenters: Quit

In 1970, when President Richard Nixon announced the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, twenty foreign-service officers signed a letter to the Secretary of State protesting the decision. According to “The Dissent Papers,” a history of bureaucratic opposition to Presidential policies, by Hannah Gurman, of New York University, it was the largest protest in the State Department’s history. Nixon was not impressed. He had a well-known hostility toward federal employees, especially at State, which he saw as filled with Kennedy-era liberals who were more interested in thwarting his policies than carrying them out. “When a bureaucrat deliberately thumbs his nose, we’re going to get him,” he said, privately, soon after taking office. “The little boys over in State particularly, that are against us, we will do it.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Many Dangers of Donald Trump’s Executive Order
Why Corporate America Must Stand Up to Trump
Poetry in a Time of Protest

Speechless: The Trump Effect

If you’re trying to talk to someone who doesn’t seem to be listening, or to be fully coherent, or who switches premises in mid-conversation, or who even conjures up falsehoods without shame, there comes a point when you’re inclined to give up. If the dialogue approaches the Full Orwell (“War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery,” and all that), your instinctive reaction might be as simple as speechlessness.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Waking Up and No Longer Feeling Part of America
Donald Trump, Pirate-in-Chief
New York Stands Up to Trump

Donald Trump, Pirate-in-Chief

Donald Trump has had a fixation on Iraq’s oil—and America’s right to seize it—for at least six years. In 2011, he told a Fox News producer that the U.S. should “take the oil.” It was a common theme on the campaign trail last year. “We go in, we spent three trillion dollars. We lose thousands and thousands of lives, and then look what happens is we get nothing. You know, it used to be the victor belong the spoils,” Trump said on NBC’s “Today Show,” in September. “There was no victor there, believe me. There was no victory. But I always said, ‘Take the oil.’ “

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Speechless: The Trump Effect
Waking Up and No Longer Feeling Part of America
New York Stands Up to Trump

A Welcome Setback for Donald Trump

“Americans severely misjudged the authoritarians,” Umair Haque, a consultant and social-media maven, commented on Twitter on Saturday night. “But the authoritarians, it seems, also severely misjudged Americans.” Yes, they did, and this weekend’s events offered a bit of hope to everybody alarmed by Donald Trump. Saving America from the most unhinged and least qualified figure ever to occupy the Oval Office may well require a long and bitter fight. But a couple of early markers have been put down. The new President is not beyond the law. And many Americans will not stand by quietly as he traduces their country’s values, threatens its democracy, and destroys its reputation around the world.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Speechless: The Trump Effect
A Sharp Intake of Breath at “Fiddler on the Roof”
Waking Up and No Longer Feeling Part of America

The Hard-Liners Standing Behind Trump Against Sanctuary Cities

Last week, when Trump signed two executive orders on immigration, in the Oval Office, he was flanked by a half-circle of smiling supporters. At one end of the group stood the founder and president of the Remembrance Project, a thin, dark-haired Texan named Maria Espinoza. The Remembrance Project calls itself “a national organization that advocates for families of victims killed by illegal aliens.” Lady Justice is its mascot. But organizations that monitor American hate groups have followed Espinoza for years, and they’ve raised concerns about her work. “She and the activists and organizations she associates with demonize immigrants and provide a platform for bigotry,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a 2014 report.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Speechless: The Trump Effect
Waking Up and No Longer Feeling Part of America
Donald Trump, Pirate-in-Chief

Spectacular Relief from the World at the Australian Open

We have come to expect everything from a match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal—everything, that is, except that it would happen. Coming into the Australian Open, they had met thirty-four times. No one had reason to suspect that there would be a thirty-fifth in Melbourne. When it came, early Sunday morning, it seemed like more than the final of a tennis tournament. People talked about it as if it were a restoration. It was a reason for joy in the midst of dark times, a reason to wake up in the middle of the night and cheer.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Knicks Throw Up Another Airball
Venus Williams and Amazing Comebacks at the Australian Open
J. J. Redick’s Part-Time Job