UNBELIEVABLE: 4 | History Defined

Michael Hiltzik: Greedy railroads are to blame for rail strike threat. Why should Congress help them?

The prevailing take on the looming national rail crisis is that a few recalcitrant railroad unions are poised go on strike Dec. 9, provoking an industrywide labor walkout that would inflict a "crippling" blow to the U.S. economy.

Los Angeles Times · Nov 29, 2022

Michael Hiltzik: Thinking of putting crypto in your 401(k)? Think twice

The federal government has some advice for workers contemplating adding bitcoin or another cryptocurrency to their retirement holdings: Don't.

Los Angeles Times · Nov 23, 2022

Michael Hiltzik: How Sam Bankman-Fried exploited the 'effective altruism' fad to get rich and con the world

The most uplifting aspect of the Sam Bankman-Fried story was always that he guided his way to a putative cryptocurrency fortune of more than $16 billion by following a philosophy of charitable giving known as "effective altruism."

Los Angeles Times · Nov 22, 2022

Michael Hiltzik: A cryptocurrency billionaire implodes, showing that the whole field is built on quicksand

For a while there, Sam Bankman-Fried looked like the real thing.

Los Angeles Times · Nov 9, 2022

Michael Hiltzik: A cryptocurrency billionaire implodes, showing that the whole field is built on quicksand

For a while there, Sam Bankman-Fried looked like the real thing.

Los Angeles Times · Nov 9, 2022

Michael Hiltzik: Is Elon Musk a genius or an idiot?

At the heart of Elon Musk's public persona is his image as an engineering and managerial genius.

Los Angeles Times · Nov 7, 2022

Michael Hiltzik: Meta and Twitter show the drawbacks of giving self-satisfied billionaires too much power

Back in the prehistoric era — in 2012, when Facebook staged one of the most hyped initial public stock offerings of all time — I warned the company's newly minted shareholders that they had become wedded to Mark Zuckerberg.

Los Angeles Times · Nov 3, 2022

Michael Hiltzik: ProPublica and Vanity Fair are pushing the COVID lab-leak theory, but their exposé is a train wreck

Since its founding in 2007, the independently funded investigative organization ProPublica has exposed wrongdoing at all levels of government and shined a light on corporate misbehavior, collecting six Pulitzer Prizes in the process and securing a reputation for painstaking, accurate journalism.

Los Angeles Times · Nov 3, 2022

Michael Hiltzik: Republicans keep harping on inflation, but don't have any answers for it

Even if you didn't know from your household accounts that inflation has been running hot this year, your local Republican officeholders and candidates would make sure it wasn't a secret.

Los Angeles Times · Nov 2, 2022

Michael Hiltzik: Obscenely rich dialysis firms are spending millions to defeat California's tighter regulations

A good rule of thumb for assessing the value of a business is to look at how much its owners will spend to defend it from regulations. By that measure, the dialysis business is very valuable indeed.

Los Angeles Times · Oct 28, 2022