Best Business Longreads for the Week of October 5, 2013
From the richest man in Brazil losing nearly everything to the ambitions of The Guardian, The Daily Beast brings you the best in business journalism from the week of October 5, 2013.
David Brabyn/Corbis
How Brazil’s Richest Man Lost $34.5 Billion Juan Pablo Spinetto, Peter Millard, and Ken Wells—BusinessWeekGoing from one of the richest men in the world to the verge of bankruptcy in the span of 18 months seems impossible. And yet, through a combination of hubris, ignorance and excess, Eike Batista did just that. Once a symbol of Brazil’s high-powered growth, Batista is now also a symbol of its current struggles.
A Virginia Businesswoman’s Mission to Save SomaliaKeith Kloor—Washington Post Magazine1.1 million Somalis live as refugees—one of many costs of a decades-long civil war. Michele Ballarin, a Virginia socialite and businesswoman, has found herself at the center of the push to resettle those refugees. Interestingly, this isn’t Ballarin’s first go-around with Somalia—in 2008 she was placed in charge of negotiations with Somali pirates.
The Truth About Obamacare and How It Solves the Suffering of the UninsuredKurt Eichenwald—Vanity FairOne of the biggest problems with the pre-Obamacare healthcare system is that the uninsured have an impact on those with insurance—and quite a large one. So instead of complaining about how Obamacare pays for those ‘takers’ with hard-earned taxpayer money, the better way to think about it may be that taxpayers were already paying and therefore this might be a better way of doing it.
Can the Guardian Take Its Investigations Global?Ken Auletta—The New YorkerOver the past few years, from Wikileaks to the NSA, The Guardian has been a major disruptor in the media world. Couple with its prodigious online presence, it has become a global brand to be reckoned with. But is that a financially sustainable model?
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