Imagine if each time your wages were deposited in your bank account, your employer deducted a fee of 1.5% to 5% to provide the money electronically. That, increasingly, is what health insurers are imposing on doctors. propublica.org/article/the-hi… Many insurers, after whittling down physicians’ reimbursements, now take an additional cut if the doctor prefers — as almost all do — to receive funds electronically rather than via a paper check. Here's a 🧵about how powerful industry lobbyist made it all possible.

As the Texas Workforce Commission put it to me, the unemployment insurance system “was the victim of what is one of the largest internet crimes in history, perpetrated against all 50 states at extraordinary levels.”

What was going on behind the scenes? (THREAD) Entire communities have sprouted up on messaging apps such as @Telegram, where fraudsters trade tips on how to cash in by filing fake unemployment insurance claims. On Telegram alone, I found over 25 such chat forums.

NEW: You've probably heard the term "collateralized loan obligation" in past few weeks. Scroll thru this visual explainer @anarivasWSJ and I put together and learn what CLOs are, how they work & what's going wrong in this $700bn+ corner of the bond market wsj.com/articles/how-c… Why this matters: Struggling corporate borrowers like Hertz, J.Crew and Neiman Marcus sell their loans into this market. As defaults and bankruptcies rise, so will the stress on CLOs, crimping the supply of credit when it's needed most. Here's more on that wsj.com/articles/strug…

NEW: S&P fired one of its employees, Andrew Park, after he briefed Senate Banking Committee staff on the growing risks in the $1.2 trillion market for loans that finance private-equity buyouts wsj.com/articles/s-p-f… The coronavirus pandemic made Mr. Park’s warnings look prescient. Downgrades of loans owed by heavily indebted corporations have spiked sharply since February, eclipsing levels seen during the financial crisis

NEW: Do you want to work for free? Well, neither do credit ratings firms. Which is why a postcrisis SEC rule that enabled them to publish unsolicited credit ratings for free has yielded few, if any, results. Bond issuers easily beat that price point. wsj.com/articles/sec-f… The SEC declined to answer questions about the program, but said in response to a #FOIA request that after a “thorough search” of its records, it “did not locate or identify” any examples of unsolicited ratings published by ratings firms under the rule.

My latest: I've been on the mortgage trail lately, trying to figure out why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would buy and securitize loans like these.

Fake tenants, fake income, but real loans? U.S. pursues one of the largest mortgage-fraud probes since 2008
wsj.com/articles/u-s-p… Loans for apartment buildings where owners allegedly staged units to make them look occupied -- by playing radios inside units or putting doormats outside -- have sparked one of the biggest mortgage fraud probes since the 2008 financial crisis.

wsj.com/articles/u-s-p…

This is remarkable: @NYSHCR is refusing to tell @housingrightsNY the names of landlords it is targeting as part of a compliance initiative with a popular NYC tax break, J-51, that requires landlord to limit rent increases on tenants: nydailynews.com/new-york/dhcr-… Remarkable because @NewYorkStateAG had a similar compliance initiative for another tax break, 421-A, which also resulted in letters being sent to scofflaw landlords. Anyone remember this? propublica.org/article/landlo…

1/ When I was a senior @Penn in 2006 studying business and getting ready to go off to Wall Street, I never dreamed I’d someday get the honor to work on a project like this – a data-driven @WSJ look back on the lingering legacy of the 2008 financial crisis: graphics.dev.wsj.com/how-the-world-… 2/ This was an ambitious effort with my talented @WSJGraphics colleagues @tylerpaige @no_such_zone @jessiekuronen @gianordoli who helped me distill complex financial jargon into beautiful charts and illustrations anyone can understand – what financial journalism’s all about!