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After about 45 minutes at the museum, I'd say the experience is best done in a multi-generational group to spark conversations about the past, present, and future.

The Museum of Failure

• The Museum of Failure is a collection of ambitious, but failed innovations curated by Sweden-based psychologist Samuel West.
• The collection is on display in New York City until May 14, 2023.
• Standard admission to the museum is about $22 per person during the week, and $29 on the weekends.

The exhibitions consisted of inventions from the past 400 years. There were creations on display from as far back as the 1600s and as recent as 2022.The Ford Edsel (1958-1960) lost the automotive company around $350 million after it was negatively received by consumers who found the car unattractive.

Jordan Hart/Insider

NuSpoons were nominated to appear in the museum by their inventor who created the foldable paper spoons meant to be a more eco-friendly alternative to plastic."It was a good idea, but they're actually pretty difficult to fold," a museum staff member told Insider.

Jordan Hart/Insider

McDonald's Arch Deluxe (1996-1997) was a $300 million investment for the fast-food giant, but its ad campaign showing children disgusted by the sandwich fell flat.The chain intended to create a burger with a more "grown-up taste," but failed to appeal to customers.

Jordan Hart/Insider

The Nintendo Power Glove (1989-1990) was the first mass-marketed wearable video game controller, but functionality issues led to its swift downfall.Items at the Museum of Failure were scored on innovation, design, implementation, and the fail-o-meter that rated failures on a scale from one to 10.

Jordan Hart/Insider

I was surprised to see the Segway (2001) on display as they're still sold, but some items were failures because they simply didn't live up to the hype.The Segway was meant to be the new way humans got around when it was unveiled over 20 years ago. Although it didn't replace cars or bikes, you can still purchase one.

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On the walls of next to the exhibitions, there were posters dedicated to entrepreneurs who famously failed on their rode to success."Make America Fail Again," this poster read next to a display of former president Donald Trump's failed business ventures.

Jordan Hart/Insider

"It's quite violent," a staff member commented on the interactive Hula Chair (2007-2010) meant for exercising while at your desk.Guests of the museum sat in the chair only to be surprised by the intensity of the hula motion it made when turned on.

Jordan Hart/Insider

The Uroclub (2008) was one of the more disturbing displays I came across. As the name suggests, it's a golf club and urinal in one.The Uroclub was featured on season 1 of ABC's Shark Tank, and was invented by a urologist.

Jordan Hart/Insider

Although the museum is suitable for all ages, there's a section dedicated to adult inventions like the Spray-on Condom (2006-2008) and Hooters Air (2003-2006).The Spray-on Condom was invented by the German Institute for Condom Consultancy in an effort to create a condom that fits everyone perfectly, but it failed to address awkward application issues like the three-minute dry time. Hooters Air was an airline created by the famous restaurant chain, but the company failed to thrive in the sky.

Jordan Hart/Insider

The "Failure in Progress" poster featured more recent inventions that could still succeed or flop - but it's too soon to tell.

Jordan Hart/Insider

These see-through Lululemon yoga pants ultimately cost the company around $67 million in 2013 after founder Chip Wilson commented that the product wasn't for larger women, according to the museum.Not all failures were utter flops. Lululemon may have suffered in 2013, but the brand is still popular with young female shoppers.

Jordan Hart/Insider

The 3D TV (2010-2017) gained popularity in the late 2000s — especially with the release of James Cameron's "Avatar" — but studios weren't really interested in shooting 3D productions."It's been a walking corpse for the last couple of years, and now 3D TV finally looks dead," CNET proclaimed in 2017.

Jordan Hart/Insider

The museum's "Wall of Oreos" featured countless flavors the cookie brand attempted to launch without much luck – even if some were cult favorites.Some of the failed flavors, according the museum, include key lime pie, jelly donut, and mint.

Jordan Hart/Insider

Google Glass (2013-2015) was another example of a successful company taking a big swing with a new invention and ultimately missing the mark.The "smart glasses" boasted a built-in camera, internet access, and voice controls, but they came with a hefty price tag of $1,500.

Jordan Hart/Insider

Before snowboards arrived in the 1990s, there was the Monoski (1981)."It could possibly work in powder, but I don't understand why anyone would use it on regular ski slopes," a ski rental operator told the Museum of Failure.

Jordan Hart/Insider

At the end of their tour, attendees were encouraged to share their own failures with a notes left on this wall."Many people regret not doing something, over doing it," a staff member told Insider.

Jordan Hart/Insider

"Pronouncing 'amphitheater' (as) 'ampli-theater' for 30 years," one failure note read.While some failures were more serious and expressed deep regret, others were small blunders with a comedic tone.

Jordan Hart/Insider

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Dollar General

• Dollar General has hiked food prices more than Walmart and Kroger, Bank of America analysts found. 
• The analysts visited stores in Dallas in February and compared grocery costs with three years ago.
• Walmart and Aldi had the lowest prices, according to the analysts.

Dollar General stakes its reputation on low prices. But the chain might not be the best value for groceries.

That's one takeaway from a study by analysts at Bank of America published on Thursday. The study documented prices on a range of grocery items in February at retailers in Dallas, including Walmart, Kroger, Target, Dollar General, and Aldi, among others. The analysts then compared those prices to data collected at the same stores in 2020.

At Dollar General, prices rose 36%, the steepest increase of all the retailers, Bank of America analysts Robert Ohmes and Kendall Toscano wrote. Across all food retailers, prices were 22% higher compared to three years earlier. 

Dollar General did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the report.

Those higher prices could be partially due to Dollar General's greater reliance on canned vegetables, pasta, and other shelf-stable items. That group of products, which grocery industry experts call "center-of-store items," "has been more inflationary vs. categories like produce," the analysts wrote.

Dollar General has spent years adding more fresh produce to its offerings. The chain said earlier this month that it will have produce in 5,000 stores — roughly one-quarter of its entire network — by the end of 2023.

Several items that the Bank of America analysts purchased at the Dallas Dollar General also rang up higher at the register than the prices posted on the shelf, according to the report. Dollar General has faced investigation in Ohio for similar problems. Inspections at stores in Summit County, Ohio, for instance, found that 19% of items had prices at the register that didn't match what was on the shelf tags, Cleveland.com reported in February.

"We think a challenging labor environment could potentially be limiting dollar stores' ability to accurately reflect price increases at the shelf level," Ohmes and Toscano wrote.

The price of a cart of groceries rose less at full-service grocers, according to the report. At Kroger, prices rose 21%, roughly in line with food inflation since 2020. 

Walmart and Aldi had the lowest grocery prices across a range of products, from meat and seafood to packaged goods, according to the study. Aldi was cheaper than Walmart in every category other than household and personal care goods.

A basket of 33 items at Walmart cost $187.50, according to the study. A comparable selection at Target totaled $194.15, while the cost at Dollar General was $201.14. At Family Dollar, another chain of dollar stores, it was $203.67.

Inflation has slowed down in recent months, though it remains historically high for products such as food. The Consumer Price Index for food at home, a key indicator of grocery prices, rose 10.2% year-over-year in February. Prices for products like coffee and butter have been among the hardest-hit.

In response, some shoppers have sought out cheaper versions of products, buying store-brand items instead of products from big names like Kraft and General Mills. Consumers have also turned to Dollar Stores, given their reputation for inexpensive stuff, CNBC reported in February.

Do you work or shop at a Dollar General and have a story to share? Reach out to Alex Bitter at abitter@insider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at (808) 854-4501.

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Former Tennessee state Reps. Justin Pearson of Memphis, left, and Justin Jones of Nashville, right, walk with state Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville across the campus of Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., on April 7, 2023.

AP Photo/George Walker IV

• Van Jones last week pressed a Tennessee Republican over his caucus voting to oust two Democratic lawmakers.
• "You have not done this to anybody except for two people in 200 years," Jones told state Rep. Jeremy Faison.
• The GOP-led state House took the action after then-Reps. Jones and Pearson led a gun reform protest from the floor.

CNN political commentator Van Jones last week pressed Tennessee GOP state Rep. Jeremy Faison over his party's decision to expel two Black Democratic state lawmakers over a gun reform floor protest.

Jones pointedly said that Republicans had been "unreasonable" in the situation.

During an interview with Faison, who serves as the chair of the state House Republican Caucus, Jones questioned why GOP lawmakers asked then-state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson to adhere to the rules of the body, but then proceed to remove them from their elected positions anyway.

"If you are here saying you want this legislature to be respected, why are you not following the rules and using the tools that you have?" Jones asked Faison during the television exchange. "You want them to not be extreme, but you're being extreme. Why is that?"

Faison said he felt as though House Republicans followed the proper protocol.

"We actually are following the rules and we gave them ample chance," he said. "We established what was taking place on Monday. There was due process. It is not just up to me."

Jones then cut in and asked Faison why Republicans didn't initiate an ethics process for the two Democrats.

"I'm just trying to understand — why did you not go to the Ethics Committee and do the things that are always done in that body? You have not done this to anybody except for two people in 200 years," he said. "You can't tell me that there have not been people who have also been disruptive. You've had people have that peed on chairs that did not get expelled."

—Acyn (@Acyn) April 7, 2023

"I don't understand why you skipped the Ethics Committee if you want respect, and if you want for people to be reasonable, why are you being so unreasonable and why are you skipping steps? You're not acting the way you want the young people to act," he continued.

Faison disputed the veracity of the peeing incident — even as Politico reporter Natalie Allison recently wrote that it was "generally accepted" that it occurred — but he indicated that the decision to oust the two lawmakers was the prevailing sentiment among the GOP caucus.

"What you need to understand is this is a body of people who decide cooperatively what we're going to do moving forward," Faison said. "This body spoke many times. I brought our caucus together several times since last Thursday to ask the body what we as a group wanted to do."

"The overwhelming majority, the heartbeat of this caucus, says, 'Not on this House floor. Not this way,'" he added.

Faison then stated that Republicans, who control 75 out of the 99 seats in the state House of Representatives, didn't want to go through an ethics process or censure the Democratic lawmakers.

In late March, Jones and Pearson took to the House floor and used bullhorns to rally gun reform advocates at the state Capitol who were pushing for action after the shooting deaths of six people — including three children — at the Covenant School in Nashville.

State Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white lawmaker who also joined the gun reform protest, was not expelled by House Republicans and remarked last week that "it's pretty clear" why she was spared.

"I'm a 60-year-old white woman, and they are two young Black men. In listening to the questions and the way they were questioned and the way they were talked to, I was talked down to as a woman, mansplained to, but it was completely different from the questioning that they got," she said.

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Flint, Michigan ranked worst in the country, according to the study.

LindaParton / iStock

• Markets in Michigan and Ohio rank among the worst for home value growth, according to a SmartAsset study.
• The best markets are in places like Colorado and Texas. 
• Flint, Michigan ranks worst in the country, according to the study. 

If you're looking for wealth stability when you buy a house, it might be smart to stay away from the Midwest. 

According to a new SmartAsset study, some markets in Ohio and Michigan rank among the worst for home value growth and stability. 

The study took stock of 400 US housing markets and the amount the values of homes increased over the past 25 years. 

In some of the best markets, like those in Austin, Texas and Boulder, Colorado, home values have increased by up to about 350% in value. But toward the bottom of the rankings, home values have increased by as little as 70% since 1998 — slower than the pace of inflation, which has seen the buying power of a dollar in 1998 balloon to $1.86, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator. 

The Smart Asset study took into account how many fiscal quarters a home value decreased by more than 5% in the 10 years after a home was purchased, reflected as a percentile and weighted with the overall change in value of homes in the market over 25 years. 

If you're looking to buy a home, here are the 15 US markets with the worst return on investment you might want to avoid: 

15. Elgin, IllinoisIllinois, United States.

Getty Images

Elgin, Illinois, located just west of Chicago, ranks 15th in the study, with a home value increase of about 73% over the last 25 years. The city ranked among the worst for stability, with values decreasing 38% of the time over the 10 years after a home was purchased.

14. Cleveland, Ohio

Yuanshuai Si/Getty Images

The Cleveland-Elyria metro area ranked 14th in the study with a value increase of 69% over 25 years, and a stability ranking in the 38th percentile, according to SmartAsset. Cleveland also saw homes devalue at a rate of 38%, but its slower overall growth brought it below Elgin in the rankings. 

13. Lansing, MichiganMichigan State Capitol Building in Lansing

Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Lansing ranked 13th with a home value increase of 84% — but it was dragged lower on the list with a 41% rate of devaluation over the first 10 years of homeownership. 

12. Mansfield, Ohio

Sabrina Gordon/Getty Images

Masfield, Ohio ranked 12th with a home value increase of 75%, and a 40% rate of devaluation. 

11. Toledo, OhioToledo is a large midwestern port city that is renowned for its glass industry.

Getty Images

Toledo fell at the 11th worst ranking with a home value increase of 68% since 1998, and a 39% rate of devaluation, according to SmartAsset. 

10. Jackson, Michigan

Google/Screenshot

Jackson kicks of the worst 10 markets with a home value increase of 87% — among the highest in the bottom 15. But its rate of devaluation fell at 42%, among the worst in the study.

9. Warren, Michigan

Google/Screenshot

The Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills metro ranked ninth with a home value increase of 85% and a devaluation rate of 42% to match Jackson. 

8. Kokomo, Indiana

Wikimedia

Kokomo ranked eighth with a home value increase of just 65%, and a devaluation rate of 39%.

7. Bay City, Michigan

Google/Screenshot

Homes in Bay City have increased in value by 71% since 1998, but have had a devaluation rate of 40%, according to SmartAsset. 

6. Rockford, Illinois

Henryk Sadura/Shutterstock

Home values in Rockford have increased just 62% — the lowest recorded in the study. The area experienced a devaluation rate of 39%. 

5. East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

Mike Segar/Reuters

Rounding out the top five is East Stroudsburg, where homes have increased in value by 100% since 1998. But stability in the area faltered at 45%, matching the worst ranked city in the study

4. Saginaw, Michigan

Shutterstock

Saginaw saw home values increase by just 64% and devalue at a rate of 40%

3. Detroit, MichiganDowntown Detroit, Michigan.

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The Detroit metropolitan area ranked among the worst in the Study, with a home value increase of 76%, and devaluation at a rate of 44%.

2. Monroe, Michigan

Google/Screenshot

Monroe ranks second-worst in the country with a value increase of 75% and devaluation rate of 44%

1. Flint, Michigan

http://247wallst.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/flint.jpg

Flint is the worst market for home value stability in the country, according to SmartAsset. The area experienced a home value increase of about 72% over 25 years, but had the worst stability rate in the country, clocking in at 45%. 

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Walmart Supercenter in New Jersey.

Rachel Askinasi/Business Insider

• Walmart is the world's largest retailer, with more than 10,000 storefronts around the globe.
• But the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company is relying more on non-store business to drive profits.
• The retail giant has recently invested a lot in bolstering its data and shipping arms, among others.

Even Walmart needs a side hustle. 

 The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant is currently the largest retailer in the world, with more than 10,000 stores globally.

But to stay ahead of competitors like Amazon, Walmart has diversified its portfolio and bolstered non-storefront businesses.

From data analytics to small business delivery, here are four side hustles Walmart uses to drive profit.

Walmart ConnectWalmart Connect is one of Walmart's fastest growing businesses.

Walmart Connect

Thanks to the help of Chief Revenue Officer Seth Dallaire, a former Instacart C-suite executive and Amazon advertising leader, Walmart Connect is one of the company's quickest-growing business segments. The retailer's advertising arm brought in $2.7 billion in revenue in 2022, a 30% increase from the year prior.

Walmart rebranded its ad platform at the start of 2021 and signaled its plans to expand its business. The platform's name has gone through a few iterations since it launched as Walmart Exchange in 2014 — two years after Amazon launched its original advertising arm. As e-commerce sales spiked at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, retailers have been racing to leverage their digital advertising offerings by placing ads on apps and websites to generate more sales.

Under Dallaire, Walmart Connect recently moved to a second-price auction model. Suppliers and third-party marketplace sellers can pay as little as a penny more than the next highest bidder on the platform, which helps keep costs down. He also gave third-party marketplace and smaller sellers more access to data.

Walmart LuminateWalmart Luminate is a data monetization platform in which suppliers can access information on shopper behavior, customer perception and more.

Walmart

Like Walmart Connect, Walmart Luminate — a data monetization platform — has grown in spades since its launch in October 2021. 

Walmart Luminate allows suppliers to access information on shopper behavior, customer perception, and more. Though Walmart doesn't often publicly disclose numbers on this product offering, it said that it grew by 75% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter of last year. 

"What we're doing is groundbreaking — not just for Walmart but for the industry in itself," Mark Hardy, Walmart's head of data ventures, previously told Insider. "We're building the right ecosystem that drives the right insights in a very agile manner, but then allows us to quickly apply those insights to then become more relevant to the customers."

Walmart Fulfillment ServicesWalmart Fulfillment Services launched in 2020.

David J. Phillip/AP Images

A copycat of Amazon's Fulfilled by Amazon, Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) launched in 2020 for third-party marketplace sellers to ship and store products using the retailer's warehouses.

Walmart has been working hard to increase its number of sellers on Walmart Marketplace. As of fall 2022, close to 200,000 third-party sellers listed products on Walmart Marketplace — about twice as many compared to the summer of 2021, according to estimates from Marketplace Pulse, an e-commerce analytics firm. For comparison, Amazon said it has nearly 2 million third-party sellers on its marketplace. 

Through its packaging and shipping arm, Walmart says it guarantees two-day shipping to anywhere in the contiguous United States, excluding peak season months, which are September through January.

Walmart GoLocalWalmart GoLocal launched in 2021.

Walmart GoLocal launched in 2021.

Walmart is even trying to make extra money by offering a delivery service business for other businesses.

Launched in the summer of 2021, Walmart GoLocal allows businesses to arrange local deliveries with the retail giant. By the end of 2022, Walmart GoLocal delivered from more than 5,000 business and retail locations.

Tom Ward, then the company's senior vice president of last mile, said in August 2021 that the business would be available in suburban and rural areas, typically an area where other delivery providers struggle.

"Through Walmart GoLocal, any merchant from national retailers to small town shops can use Walmart's growing delivery platform to power their local delivery efforts. The service is white-label, in that our clients brands are front and center." 

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ByteDance had revenues of about $85 billion, the Financial Times reported.

Reuters

• ByteDance posted a profit of $25 billion last year, the Financial Times reported.
• The TikTok owner increased its bottom line by almost 80% compared with 2021's $14 billion result. 
  
• It was valued at $300 billion in 2022, making it the world's most valuable privately owned company.
  

Profits at ByteDance, the Chinese owner of video-sharing site TikTok, soared almost 80% last year to $25 billion, the Financial Times reported.

Revenues jumped more than 30% to about $85 billion as advertisers increased their spending on TikTok and its Chinese equivalent called Douyin. Only about $15 billion was generated outside China, although that was more than double the figure for 2021, per the newspaper.  

The figures came from two unnamed investors familiar with the results, according to the FT.  

ByteDance was valued at $300 billion last year, making it the world's most valuable privately-owned company.

Despite soaring profits, founder Zhang Yiming's fortune fell by $13 billion to $42 billion after TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress last month and revealed the founders had a smaller stake than previously estimated. 

Chew said that Yiming and Liang Rubo, the chief executive of ByteDance, own around 20% of the company. Yiming ran ByteDance from its foundation in 2012 until 2021, when Rubo succeeded him as CEO.

Chew testified in an attempt to ease concerns that ByteDance was sharing data about US users with the Chinese government.

ByteDance has been threatened with a US TikTok ban by the Biden administration if it doesn't sell the app. More than 12 other countries have partially or totally banned TikTok over similar security concerns. 

An executive coach, who was a former advisor to President Obama and Disney, was hired by TikTok to work with Chew for more than a month before his hearing. 

Some in ByteDance do not seem to concerned about the prospect of a US ban, however. 

Erich Anderson, one of its lawyers heading up discussions with the US government, was asked about contingency plans if the app did get banned in the US, The Verge's Command Line newsletter reported Thursday.

Anderson responded to the question with laughter and "outright dismissed the possibility of a ban," according to the report.

ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment from the Financial Times and didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

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Lorenzo Maraviglia is the general manager of the San Domenico Palace, Taormina, the Four Seasons Hotel where "The White Lotus" was filmed.

Courtesy of the Four Seasons

• Lorenzo Maraviglia is the general manager of the hotel where "The White Lotus" Season 2 was filmed.
• The hit TV series has attracted an influx of tourism to the small Sicilian town, he said. 
• He told Insider what the show gets right about his job and where it embellishes reality. 

In order to work at the San Domenico Palace, the Four Seasons hotel in Taormina, Italy, you are required to watch all seven episodes of "The White Lotus" season two.

That's because the renovated 14th-century convent overlooking the Ionian Sea was the central filming location of the hit-TV drama — and it's all hotel guests want to talk about. 

Travelers are scrambling to visit the hotels in Maui and Sicily where the first two seasons of HBO's hit were set. When season one was broadcast, web traffic to the Four Seasons Maui resort increased 425% year-over-year, Marc Speichert, executive vice president and COO at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, told Insider.

During season two, flight and hotel searches from the US to Sicily increased more than 50%, according to the travel app Hopper.

"I think it would probably be easier to identify those who are not here because of White Lotus," Lorenzo Maraviglia, general manager of San Domenico Palace, told Insider. "From a financial point of view, we were planning to reach this level in five or six years."

The show's depictions of murder, prostitution, and deception haven't deterred visitors in the slightest. In fact, many of the hotel's guests are intentionally planning their vacations around the characters' escapades, Maraviglia told Insider, from booking Vespa tours and luxury yachts to renting villas in Noto and drinking Aperol Spritz's. 

Maraviglia said guests are planning excursions based on "The White Lotus," including Vespa tours.

Fabio Lovino/HBO

"We're selling cruises like we have never done before," Maraviglia said. "It's funny because in "The White Lotus," Jennifer Coolidge gets killed on the cruise — so I don't know how inspiring that can be."

Sometimes, guests' obsession with the show can cause confusion, he said. For example, "The White Lotus" characters are often pictured walking from the ocean to their rooms, leading some guests to believe there is a beach club attached to the hotel. In reality, San Domenico Palace is a 50-minute drive from the coast, he told Insider. 

The Mia and Lucia characters have also prompted frequent inquiries regarding "evening entertainment," he said, which is not something the quiet, family-oriented property is known for. 

"I don't wish to disappoint anyone by saying that," he said. "You come here for the wine, for the food ... for the art, for the culture, to relax. You don't really come to have such an active life at night." 

Sabrina Impacciatore plays the hotel manager Valentina in "The White Lotus" season 2.

HBO

While guests may deliberately blend the line between the series and their reality as a form of escapism, Maraviglia is acutely aware of the similarities and differences that exist between the show and his daily life. 

In both seasons of "The White Lotus," the hotels' general managers are the central figures holding everyone else together, navigating unreasonable guest demands and employee drama while dealing with their own personal challenges.

Maraviglia said the absurd guest requests and wide-ranging job responsibilities "The White Lotus" hotel managers deal with in the show are generally accurate, but the ways in which they deal with them are highly dramatized. 

"That newly-wed couple that complains about the suite not being the exact suite, these are things that essentially sometimes happen," Maraviglia said. "Somebody may get frustrated by a very small thing instead of perhaps enjoying a very large and beautiful suite."

During filming, when the show's cast rented out the entire hotel for three months, Maraviglia said Sabrina Impacciatore (who plays the character Valentina), would follow him around the hotel and take notes during his meetings. 

Maraviglia said Impacciatore would shadow him during filming in order to learn about his day-to-day job.

Fabio Lovino/HBO

"The impact that the guest has on the life of a hotelier in terms of complaining, managing expectations, empathizing with the issues, even if you don't feel that they are real issues," he said. "With this type of daily dynamics, perhaps I was inspiring to her."

Maraviglia said one of the main challenges of the job is work-life balance — something the show's characters also struggle with — especially when you represent a very well-known brand in a small town. 

"It's like being an ambassador of a nation. You don't really have a day off," he told Insider. "Even on a day off, I go to the supermarket and people know that I'm the General Manager of the four seasons, there's a certain behavior and a certain expectation that comes from you."

Do you work for a hotel, cruise, or airline? Got a story or tip to share? Email this reporter from a non-work address at htowey@insider.com

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Crystal Pepsi was around for just one year, but made a big impression.

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Crystal Pepsi

• Food companies regularly discontinue items that don't sell well. Many culled products during the pandemic to focus on top-selling products.
• Examples of discontinued snacks from the past few decades include Odwalla juice, New Coke, and purple ketchup.
• Here are 12 products from consumer packaged food companies seemingly now gone forever.

Tab

Ramin Talaie/Getty Images

Tab became one of the first diet sodas to hit the market in 1963. That gave it a niche audience that few other soft drinks could match until Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi came along in the early 1980s, Fast Company reported in 2020.

Sales of Tab declined after that, but Coca-Cola, which owned the brand, kept making it for decades in order to satisfy its small but loyal fan base, the Wall Street Journal reported. Finally, in 2020, Coke said it would discontinue the soda at the end of that year as part of a broader culling of underperforming brands.

But even until its demise, Tab had its fans. One woman Insider interviewed in 2020 even ran a website to help Tab drinkers find the soda for sale as its distribution dwindled. 

Heinz Ez Squirt purple and green ketchup

Heinz

Heinz started selling green ketchup as a tie-in with the first Shrek movie in 2000, Fast Company reported. But afterwards, it introduced new colors, including purple and orange, which helped increase its share of US ketchup sales to 60%, according to the publication.

Called "EZ Squirt," the bottles also featured a nozzle that made it easier for kids to squirt the ketchup on their food. In a pop culture reference of the era, an ABC article at the time pointed out that kids could "draw Harry Potter lightening bolts on hot dogs" with the purple ketchup.

The last of the oddly colored condiments were pulled from grocery shelves in 2006. The early 2000s brought several oddly-colored foods that are now discontinued snacks, such as blue fries and pink margarine, but the fad fadded after a few years, Mashed reported.

Honest TeaSeth Goldman sold Honest Tea to Coke

Honest Tea

Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff started Honest Tea in 1998 as an alternative to sugary beverages. They eventually sold the brand to Coca-Cola in 2011, becoming one of the most notable examples of a small brand that attracted the attention of one of the biggest beverage companies in the world. At the time, Coke had a division just for acquiring and nurturing small brands.

Then, in 2022, Coke said it would eliminate Honest Tea. It was a decision that Goldman, who was no longer associated with the brand, called a "gut punch."

But the brand's originators have brought it back, in a way. Strictly speaking, you can't buy Honest Tea anymore. But Goldman, Nalebuff, and chef Spike Mendelsohn have started another line of bottled teas through Eat the Change, the company that Goldman and Mendelsohn run. The beverages, called Just Ice Tea, have since made it to retail shelves.

Odwalla juice

Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Another casualty of Coca-Cola's pandemic-era brand cutting was Odwalla, the juice and smoothie brand that Coke acquired in 2001 for $181 million. Coke pulled the plug on Odwalla just a few months it did the same to Tab in 2020.

The brand got its start in 1980 in California, where Greg Steltenpohl, Gerry Percy, and Bonnie Bassett sold fresh-squeezed orange juice to restaurants. The brand's bird mascot became a common sight in grocery stores and cafes in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Private equity firm Full Sail IP Partners acquired the brand in 2021, but so far there are no signs of an Odwalla comeback.

Oreo Magic Dunkers

Tommy Deonauth's Archives/Youtube

Twenty years ago, unusual colors in food weren't limited to just ketchup. In 2000, Nabisco, the maker of Oreos at the time, released a version of the sandwich cookie that changed the color of an accompanying glass of milk to blue.

The blue dye created blue swirls in a glass of milk — and could stain your hands, as two children in a television ad promoting the cookies learned.

Magic Dunkers were one of several short-lived Oreo varieties that became discontinued snacks. Other examples over the years include cookies with both chocolate and peanut butter filling and oval-shaped cookies that were easier to dunk in a glass of milk, Mental Floss reported in 2019.

Snackwell's

Snackwell's

Snackwell's hit supermarket shelves in 1992. The company advertised its cookies as "low-fat" and "better-for-you" at a time when some health experts told consumers that avoiding high-fat foods and staying thin were health ideals, The Takeout reported.

Snackwell's sales ballooned, and by 1995, the cookies brought in $490 million for parent company Nabisco, the New York Times reported at the time. The brand also helped popularize "lite" versions of other snacks, including smaller packages of chips.

But public health experts have since pointed out that low-calorie foods can be a red herring for people trying to eat healthy. "They mistakenly believe that it's okay to devour mass quantities of 'light' chips or cookies, negating the intended calorie savings" compared to eating regular versions of those foods, Consumer Reports said in 2009.

The phenomenon even has a name: the Snackwell's Effect, Consumer Reports said.

In 2022, the brand posted a message to its website saying that the Snackwell's brand "has been retired."

Crystal PepsiCrystal Pepsi was around for just one year, but made a big impression.

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Crystal Pepsi

In 1992, Pepsi unveiled what it thought would be a breakthrough idea: What if the company's flagship soda was colorless and caffeine-free?

A Super Bowl ad for Crystal Pepsi the following year played up the new variety. "Right now, someone just got a taste of the future," read one of the ad's frames, which featured a man lounging on a bench with a bottle of the clear soda. 

The strategy even solicited a response from rival Coca-Cola, which introduced a clear version of Tab. But drinkers complained that Crystal Pepsi didn't taste like the original, according to former PepsiCo executives interviewed by Thrillist in 2020.

The drink lasted roughly a year before Pepsi pulled it from shelves, sending it the way of other discontinued snacks. The company has brought the product back for a couple of limited runs since then, Insider reported.

New CokeNew Coke, left, and a can of Coca-Cola Classic

AP Photo/Charles Kelly, file

One of the biggest blunders in the history of the food world came in 1985, when Coca-Cola released a reformulated version of its signature drink. So-called "New Coke" was "smoother, rounder, yet bolder," then-CEO Roberto Goizueta told the press at the time, according to the History Channel.

But many drinkers didn't receive the new formula as warmly. Time's food critic at the time said it tasted "a little like classic Coca-Cola that has been diluted by melting ice," while others said it reminded them more of Pepsi. Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta was flooded with letters and calls from consumers angry that the company had messed with the best-selling cola in the country, according to the company's version of events.

Coca-Cola briefly tried to sell both New Coke and its original formula side-by-side to appease fans, but by the end of 1985, New Coke was gone.

 

Frito-Lay Go Snacks

Frito-Lay

Snack makers experimented with more rigid packaging for their snacks in the early 2000s. One of the most novel ideas was Frito-Lay's Go Snacks, or 8-inch tall plastic tubes that fit in cup holders and weren't as easy to crush in backpacks as bags. 

Frito-Lay told customers to "pop the top to open, use top as handy cup for snacking" or stash it on the bottom of the container, trade publication Packaging World reported in 2002.

But the new packaging never caught on, and Frito-Lay discontinued Go Snacks after a couple years, according to Twitter account Discontinued Foods!, which posts photos and details about discontinued snacks.

Smokey Robinson Frozen Dinners

SFGL Foods

Mowtown legend Smokey Robinson decided to expand his career to a new industry by starting a food company in 2004. The soul of the venture were frozen meals, such as down-home pot roast and chicken and sausage gumbo. The meals were sold at major grocery stores, including Kroger, Safeway, and Albertson's, according to a 2006 press release.

"I've been a gumbo connoisseur since I was a kid," Robinson said while promoting the frozen gumbo in 2005. "If you're going to make real good gumbo, it's an all-day or all-night cook. But this you pop in the microwave and its ready in just seven minutes."

The meals were sold for a few years before being discontinued around 2009, according to the Discontinued Foods! Twitter account.

 

Yo-J

Yo-J

Midwestern kids who grew up in the 90s and early 2000s might remember Yo-J, a mix of drinkable yogurt and fruit juice made by St. Paul, Minnesota-based dairy producer Kemps. The product was advertised with the help of a skateboarding cow who appeared on the carton and in television spots.

Kemps did not immediately respond to Insider's questions about exactly when Yo-J joined the ranks of discontinued snacks or why. But the brand's replies on Twitter to Yo-J devotees make clear that the product isn't on shelves anymore.

—Kemps (@KempsCows) February 14, 2022

 

That hasn't stopped fans from asking for its return. Yo-J was even the subject of a change.org petition, though the effort fell short of its goal of 1,000 signatures.

Squeezit

YouTube

General Mills sold Squeezit drinks from 1985 until 2001. The product would go on to reappear in grocery stores in the early 2000s, according to a YouTube video segment from the company. 

The drinks came in several flavors, such as grape and cherry. Crucially, they didn't require a straw, and a revised version of Squeezits were small enough to fit into kids' lunchboxes, the company said.

 

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Jennifer Gates recently welcomed her first child — making Bill Gates a first-time grandfather.

Horacio Villalobos - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

• Jennifer Gates, 26, is the eldest child of philanthropists — and billionaires — Bill and Melinda Gates.
• Gates is set to receive a "minuscule portion" of her parents' wealth.
• In March, she welcomed her first baby after reportedly purchasing a $51 million NYC penthouse.

Jennifer Gates, 26, is the eldest daughter of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates.

Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

She has two younger siblings, Rory and Phoebe.

Source: CNBC

Gates wasn't allowed to own a phone until she was 14.Bill Gates and Jennifer Gates attend Global Champions Tour of Monaco at Port de Hercule in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, on June 30, 2018.

fotopress/Getty Images

While their father might be famous for founding Microsoft, Entrepreneur reported that the Gates kids had a "cap on screen time" growing up.

Source: Entrepreneur

Gates and her siblings attended her father's alma mater.

Yana Paskova / Stringer/Getty Images

They all went to Seattle's private Lakeside High School.

Source: Business Insider

Gates graduated from Stanford University in 2018.

Thibault Camus/AP Images

She earned a degree in human biology and took a year off to focus on her equestrian passion before going to medical school. She told Sidelines Magazine her childhood pediatrician inspired her to pursue medicine.

She said in a February 2021 Instagram post that her parents also sparked her passion for medicine.

Source: CNN, Business Insider, Sidelines Magazine

She's an accomplished equestrian and has been riding since she was 6.

Aaron Gilbert/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

One of her favorite horses is named Alex.

"He is super sweet, down-to-earth, easy-going, but you can also go fast and have a lot of confidence, so I am really excited about him," she told US Equestrian in November 2017.

Source: Herald Weekly, US Equestrian

Gates' father has supported her passion.

Nati Harnik/AP Images

He set about buying property in Wellington, Florida, a hot spot for wealthy equestrians. The Miami Herald reported he dropped $37 million to buy a whole string of properties near Laurene Powell Jobs' estate.

Source: The Daily Mail, The Real Deal, The Miami Herald, Business Insider

Gates has competed against Eve Jobs.Eve Jobs.

Davide Mombelli - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

She's also gone up against other famous show jumpers born to celebrities and high-profile figures, like Michael Bloomberg's daughter Georgina, Bruce Springsteen's daughter Jessica, and Steven Spielberg's daughter Destry.

Source: Business Insider, Business Insider

She said it was a balancing act in college.

Al Bello / Getty Images

While she was a student at Stanford, Gates told the Horse Network that balancing school and horseback riding made her life "a little busy, but I love doing both."

Source: Horse Network

Gates also makes time to travel.

Gustavo Caballero / Stringer / Getty Images

Her Instagram highlights past trips to Kuwait, Spain, Australia, and other exciting places.

Source: Instagram

Bill Gates is determined for his children to forge their own paths in life.Bill Gates

AP

In 2011, he told The Daily Mail that his kids would each get a "minuscule portion" of his wealth, which Forbes estimates stands at $109.9 billion.

"It will mean they have to find their own way," he said.

Source: The Daily Mail, CNBC, Forbes

Gates is enrolled at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine.

Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

Gates told The Chronicle of the Horse in March 2020 that all of her medical-school classes had been temporarily moved online because of the coronavirus. 

According to her LinkedIn, she's expected to finish medical school this year.

Source: ET, New York Post, Instagram, The Chronicle of the Horse

Her parents have property nearby.

Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images

The New York Post reported that in 2017, her parents bought a $5 million condo that's only blocks from her medical school.

Source: New York Post

She got engaged in early 2020, and married in October 2021.

Alexis Anice/ALeA / Contributor

In January 2020, Gates announced her engagement to the renowned Egyptian equestrian Nayel Nassar. Nassar also attended Stanford University. "I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives learning, growing, laughing, and loving together," she wrote on Instagram at the time.

They married in October 2021.

A post shared by Jennifer Gates (@jenniferkgates)

 

Source: Forbes Middle East, Business Insider

Gates and Nassar are both riders for Paris Panthers.

Europa Press Entertainment/Europa Press via Getty Images

It's a show-jumping team founded by Gates, who also manages the team. In 2019, they competed and placed ninth in the Global Champions League.

Source: CNN

Gates has also expressed an interest in using her privilege to help others.

Shutterstock Rex for EEM

"I was born into a huge situation of privilege," Gates recently told Sidelines Magazine in an interview for the publication's July 2020 issue, "and I think it's about using those opportunities and learning from them to find things that I'm passionate about and hopefully make the world a little bit of a better place."

Source: Business Insider, Sidelines Magazine

In November, Gates and Nassar announced they are expecting their first baby.Jennifer Gates kissing Nayel Nassar at the Longines Grand Prix de New York.

Alexis Anice/ALeA /Contributor/Getty Images

In a joint Instagram post with Nassar on Thanksgiving, Gates wrote they are "thankful." with a green heart and baby bottle emoji. 

A post shared by Jennifer Gates (@jenniferkgates)

 

Gates recently purchased a six-bedroom penthouse in Tribeca for $51 million that used to belong to Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton.

Dan Mullan/Getty Images

The penthouse is 8,900 square feet with a 3,400 square-foot outdoor space. It was purchased through a Seattle-based trust tied to Gates.

Hamilton bought the penthouse for $43.99 million in 2017 and listed it for $57 million in 2019. He eventually sold it to a Seattle-based LLC — not tied to Gates — for $49.5 million in November 2021.

In addition to the six bedrooms, the three-level penthouse also has six bathrooms, two powder rooms, a plunge pool,  gas fireplace, and access to two parking spaces. 

Source: New York Post, The Real Deal

Gates welcomed her first child with Nassar in March, making Bill Gates a grandfather for the first time.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Gates shared a photo on Instagram of her and Nassar holding the newborn's feet with the caption "sending love from our healthy little family."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jennifer Gates (@jenniferkgates)

Gates announced her pregnancy in an Instagram post last November.

 

Gates's parents both shared their first public photos with their first grandchild on Instagram.Bill Gates

zz/PBG/AAD/STAR MAX/IPx

In his first publicly shared photo with his first grandchild, Bill Gates wrote, "I can't wait to watch you discover the world."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bill Gates (@thisisbillgates)

 

"There is nothing quite like holding your first grandchild," Melinda French Gates wrote, adding a smiling emoji surrounded by hearts. "It seems like just yesterday I was holding Jenn at this age. Now she has a baby of her own—and I am bursting with pride watching her and Nayel step into their new role as parents."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Melinda French Gates (@melindafrenchgates)

 

Both first-time grandparents posted their photos around the same time, but it's not clear if they were taken during the same or a separate visit.

Source: Insider

Taylor Borden, Debanjali Bose, Áine Cain, and Katie Canales contributed to an earlier version of this report.

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"Ghost jobs" are roles that employers appear to be actively hiring for, though they're actually not.

Shutterstock

• "Ghost jobs" are roles that employers list as open but that they're not actively trying to fill.
• Employers may post them for various reasons, but they can waste applicants' time and sour them on the company.
• Here are some tips on how to sniff out these job listings.

We've all heard of being ghosted in the hiring process: You apply for a job and go through a few rounds of interviews, only for the employer to disappear in the end.

But what about jobs that weren't actually there to begin with? So-called "ghost jobs" refer to roles that employers say they're actively hiring for, when they're really not.

There are some signs candidates can look for that suggest a position is likely just a ghost job. One big indicator is if a job post has been up for a while.

"Job postings that have been posted for several months are a clear sign that the company still hasn't filled it; they already filled it but chose to keep it open to still receive resumes; or maybe they forgot to close it," says human resources administrator and former recruiter Jackie Cuevas.

If you saw the role advertised on a site like LinkedIn or Indeed, double-check it's still posted on the company's site, as roles may sometimes remain on job board sites past when they were filled.

When reading the job post, you want to see as much specificity as possible.

"Sometimes if job descriptions are vague and don't provide a lot of detail to explain what the role actually is, then it's possible that someone from the company may have quickly typed something up and posted it to see if candidates will apply and to see the quality of those candidates," Cuevas said.

Cuevas continued: "So pay close attention to the actual quality of the job description — the more information, the better."

If you make it to an interview, ask about the timeline for filling the position, says Charnay Horton, a career coach and CEO of resume writing firm Resume Addict. 

You can say, "Can you tell me more about the interview process, and when the hiring manager is looking to make a decision?" or "Can you provide additional insight regarding why this opportunity is available?"

You could also consider asking, "How does this position contribute to departmental success?" to gauge how important the role is and how urgently it might need to be filled.

If your point of contact is dragging their feet throughout the process, it might be a sign they're not actively trying to fill the position, according to Horton. 

"When employers are actively hiring, they move quickly, especially if you are qualified for the role," Horton said. "They want to get you in front of the hiring manager quickly so that they do not lose you mid-process. If you get a sense that the company is lagging with responses, they may not be serious about filling the role."

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Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez/picture alliance via Getty Images

• Bitcoin is a wasteful asset that doesn't add to global welfare, Dieter Wermuth, economist and partner at Wermuth Asset Management, wrote in a recent note.
• He says the bitcoin market is highly centralized, and primarily benefits early investors and miners.
• The tokens fail as currency, given their high volatility and lack of real-world use, according to Wermuth.

Despite calls from crypto enthusiasts to HODL (hold on for dear life), letting go of bitcoin may be good for world prosperity, at least according to one economist.

That's because the cryptocurrency is a wasteful investment that takes funds away from general economic growth, Dieter Wermuth — economist and partner at Wermuth Asset Management — wrote in a note published on Wednesday.

Not only does the speculative asset not contribute to broader welfare, it creates social inequalities and allows for money laundering, tax evasion and major climate deterioration, Wermuth said.

"Bitcoin activities are a negative-sum game," he wrote. "Without crypto, the economy would be better off — there would be more money for consumption and investment."

Detailed below are three reasons to support Wermuth's negative assertions about bitcoin.

(1) It doesn't distribute wealth equally

After the front-and-center cryptocurrency bitcoin first launched in 2009, it went from being a virtually worthless asset to holding a level of nearly $68,000 by 2021. But Wermuth argues that the gains were not enjoyed by every investor; rather, an uneven wealth distribution formed that favored crypto insiders.

To illustrate, a 2021 Wall Street Journal article reported that 0.01% of bitcoin investors held 27% of coins then in circulation, or approximately $232 billion at the time.

Wermuth notes that coin-producing crypto miners and those who had positions long before the 2021 rally overwhelmingly profited from the currency's gains, while those who joined late helped make the initial investors richer — only to potentially undergo losses themselves when bitcoin crashed by around 75% in 2022.

(2) It's not really a currency

The intense volatility that bitcoin has experienced through its history also demonstrates how ill-equipped it is for a monetary role.

"Bitcoin has been brought to market with the narrative that it would be a better, more stable currency than traditional money," Wermuth wrote. "This story has been a deception."

His assertion runs on the premise that money needs to attain three core roles — as a means of payment, unit of account and store of value — all of which bitcoin performs poorly at.

In order to facilitate stability, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have a limit to the amount of tokens that will enter circulation. However, this is quickly undone when investors treat it as an investment and create more daily volatility than other markets, Wermuth said.

At the same time, he cites the fact that bitcoin has yet to have widespread use as a purchasing device, and hasn't been accepted as a means to pay taxes. Transfers between bitcoin accounts, meanwhile, continue to be slower and more expensive than traditional ones.

(3) It's a negative-sum asset

Despite the elements outlined above, bitcoin generates a great deal of financial liquidity without any proof that it contributes to productivity growth, Wermuth said.

"Back in November 2021 bitcoin's market capitalization reached 1.27 trillion dollars," he wrote. "When Lehman Brothers went belly-up in 2008, a smaller amount of money had triggered the largest financial crisis and the deepest recession of the post-World War period." 

On top of that, the process of bitcoin mining — which uses computer hardware to add transactions in the crypto to a blockchain in return for newly minted coins — is so energy intensive that Wermuth described it as a "major climate killer."

Broader crypto-market issues

His note comes at a time of high-profile challenges for the broader crypto world — ones that may have started deteriorating investor confidence in the asset.

Most recently, the collapse of the crypto-friendly Signature Bank revealed that it had faced a US probe indicating that its crypto clients may have been taking part in money laundering. At the same time, crypto-exchange Binance is facing a US lawsuit, with one of the allegations citing that it knew that it was facilitating criminal transactions.

Before that, November's FTX collapse demonstrated the risks for crypto investors operating in the unregulated market, as many of the lender's clients saw their holdings wiped out. 

"I wonder whether it will be enough to just step up regulatory efforts, or to forbid the participation of banks and other financial institutions — or to get rid of these markets altogether (if this is still an option)," he wrote.

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Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor, speaks at a panel discussion at the SALT conference in Las Vegas May 14, 2014.

Rick Wilking/Reuters

• Nouriel Roubini, the economist known as "Dr. Doom", has been warning of disaster for two decades. 
• He rose to prominence after being among the commentators to call the 2008 financial crisis. 
• Most recently, Roubini has warned that markets and the economy are sleepwalking into a new catastrophe. 

Nouriel Roubini has been everywhere lately. Wall Street's "Dr. Doom" has been out front in every big news event in markets in the last year ringing the alarm over catastrophe that he says is right around the corner. 

Whether he's blasting crypto as a criminal enterprise in the wake of FTX, or warning that markets are headed for a "Bermuda Triangle" of risk, the economist has a lot of opinions, and most are pretty dire. 

But who is the latest iteration of Dr. Doom (there have been many before him), and has he always been this bearish? 

Roubini rose to prominence with a particularly huge call in the early 2000s, when he predicted a "nightmare hard landing scenario," and began ringing the alarm for the collapse of the US housing market in 2006. When he spoke of an impending housing crash at the International Monetary Fund that year, the audience chuckled, the New York Times reported.

But when the Great Financial Crisis struck, Roubini was lauded among a handful of market luminaries who called the crash when other experts had brushed off any concerns that the economy was on weak footing. 

"He sounded like a madman in 2006," IMF economist Prakash Loungani told the Times, after inviting Roubini to the IMF conference that year. "He was a prophet when he returned in 2007."

His most recent prediction has been for the US to enter a stagflationary debt crisis that will ravage the economy. It'll be like Frankenstein's monster, combining the worst aspects of 1970s stagflation and the 2008 debt crisis. 

Nouriel Roubini economics professor at New York University attends 48th edition of Economic Forum of Cernobbio on September 02, 2022 in Cernobbio, Italy.

Photo by Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images

Gloom and doom

Born in Istanbul to an Orthodox Jewish family, he studied economics in Italy, though it went against his parents' expectations for him to enter the rug dealing business like his father.

"I was kind of like a black sheep," Roubini said of his childhood in an interview with GQ.

After he completed his undergraduate studies in Italy, he obtained a PhD in international economics at Harvard and taught economics at Yale, before taking up a teaching position at New York University, a job he's held since 1995.

Roubini has been known for his unusual approach to economics. When asked for his methodology for predicting a recession at the 2006 IMF conference, Roubini said his predictions were based on intuition, referring to his economic model as a "smell test" or a "duck test."

"If it looks like a recession and talks like a recession and quacks like a recession, it should be a recession," he said, per the Financial Times.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs, who served as Roubini's doctoral advisor at Harvard, has praised Roubini for his unique "mix of skills" as an economist. Still, despite his 2008 success, he's also faced criticism over the years for his relentless and often incorrect calls for disaster to strike. 

In 2005, he predicted Hurricane Katrina would crescendo into an economic disaster, a prediction that fizzled. In 2009, as the economy struggled to rise from the subprime crash, he warned the US would face a "double-dip" recession, though the downturn officially ended in the summer of that year, according to the National Bureau of Economics Research. 

Nouriel Roubini

AP Images

His critics say the success of his 2008 call was inevitable with so many bearish predictions under his belt. 

"Even a stopped clock is right twice a day," Anirvan Banerji, a critic of Roubini's told the New York Times in 2008.

Roubini, now 65, is predicting another financial crisis. He's published 13 op-eds in the publication Project Syndicate over past year warning of stagflation, debt, or a dreaded combination of the two.

He didn't respond to Insider's multiple requests for comment, and told Entrepreneur many years ago that he turns down 95% of his media inquiries — besides CNBC and Bloomberg, who he says call him to appear on air "every week."

Those who have spoken to Roubini say his demeanor is in line with what one would expect from a perpetually gloomy economist. In an 2009 interview, the Atlantic described his monotone speech as if coming from "an invisible teleprompter" In a 2008 interview, the New York Times described his expression as "permanently pained," radiating an "aura of gloom about him."

He's not always in character, though. Roubini rode a wave of fame after calling the 2008 crisis, after which he appeared upbeat in television appearances. In particular, his name was splashed across various media outlets, who reported throngs of guests attending lavish Manhattan penthouse parties.

At one point, he was ordered by the state of New York to remove an unauthorized hot tub from the roof of his penthouse.

"The recession has been great for me," he told New York Magazine in 2009, which reported him being seen with "at least two girls" hand in hand throughout the night. 

"They love my beautiful mind," he said. "I am ugly, but they're attracted to the brains. I'm a rock star among geeks, wonks, and nerds."

Personally, he rejects the nickname Dr. Doom.

"It's a nice nickname," he told the Entrepreneur in 2009. "But I tell you, the day when we reach the bottom, I'll be the first one to call in and say Doctor Doom has become Doctor Boom. I'm not a permabear."

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Jon Rahm plays out of the bunker during a practice round before the Masters.

AP Photo/Mark Baker

Rain barely allowed for the third round to get going yesterday, so the remaining players are facing a long day of golf today in Augusta. So if you've not had time to tune into the tournament so far, there's almost two days of golf to be crammed into today, so here's how to watch the Masters live stream for free. Weather is meant to be much more settled at least so we're expecting far fewer interruptions, if any.

TV coverage in the US for the remaining action will be on CBS and is also available on Paramount Plus. Better yet, the entire event is also streaming online for free on the Masters website for US viewers. If you're outside of the US, we can show you how to get access to that free Masters live stream too via the use of a VPN. You could be watching just a few minutes from now and be all set for the rest of the event.

Golfers are scheduled to start around 8:30 a.m. ET (1:30 p.m. BST) to resume play of the third round. If you'd rather tune in for the final round, then you'll want to circle back by 12:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. BST). The aim is to get everything wrapped up today, but any more weather delays could push us to a Monday finish.

2023 Masters live stream quick links for day 4

• US TV broadcasts: CBS, Paramount Plus
• Free US live streams: Masters.com and The Masters Tournament app
• Watch from anywhere: Use ExpressVPN service to stream from Masters.com

The biggest news emerging overnight is that Tiger Woods has pulled out of the Masters due to injury. Brooks Koepka remains on top at the start of the day at -13, while defending champion Scottie Scheffler has slowly started to recover from a poor start, but is still down at T14 on -3. Jon Rahm of Spain is in second place on -9. With so many holes to get through today though, we're expecting drama for sure. 

You can follow individual golfers at Masters.com and through The Masters Tournament app. The "Every Shot, Every Hole" feature will let you stream coverage for free without relying on ESPN or CBS to follow the action. You can also follow the Masters leaderboard and cut line on the PGA Tour website.

Where to watch the Masters in the US

You can watch the 2023 Masters Tournament on ESPN, CBS, and the Masters.com website. ESPN broadcasted the first two rounds of the tournament. Now CBS will air the final two rounds on April 8 and 9. The Masters website will offer live-streaming coverage of every shot and hole too. 

The TV broadcasts are limited to a few hours of the tournament each day, so the best way to catch all the action or follow a specific golfer is to use The Masters Tournament app or the website. Both offer free streams of every hole and daily featured groups throughout the tournament. Simulcasts of the tournament's CBS and ESPN broadcasts will also be available on Masters.com and the app, but may require you to log in with a pay-TV account. 

The CBS and Masters.com broadcasts will also be streamed on Paramount Plus, which starts at $10 a month (after a 7-day free trial). CBS and ESPN are also included as channels on live TV streaming services like Hulu + Live TV ($70/month) and FuboTV ($75/month) - Fubo also has a 7-day free trial. 

What if you're not in the US?

If you're outside the US right now, you might be in an area that doesn't have access to the free live stream of the Masters. But don't worry, that's where a VPN comes in. A VPN will let you stream the Masters from the Masters.com website no matter where you are, while also creating a more secure connection at home or on public Wi-Fi.

Our top recommended VPN service is ExpressVPN, which comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee if you're unsatisfied. You can also check our full list of the best VPN providers.

How to watch the Masters with a VPN

• Sign up for a VPN if you don't have one.
• Install it on the device you're using to watch the Masters.
• Turn it on and set it to any US location.
• Visit Masters.com.
• Click "watch live" to choose a feed between the available holes and featured groups
• Coverage will be available from April 6 to 9.

The Masters 2023 TV schedule

The Masters is separated into four rounds of tournament play beginning on April 6 and concluding April 9. Tee times begin as early as 8 a.m. ET, so not every player will be included on the TV broadcasts. You can find a full breakdown of player tee-times at Masters.com.

Event

Date and time (ET)

Channel/Service

The Masters first round

April 6, 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

ESPN, Masters.com (simulcast)

The Masters second round

April 7, 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

ESPN, Masters.com (simulcast)

The Masters third round

April 8, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

CBS, Paramount Plus, Masters.com (simulcast)

The Masters final round

April 9, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

CBS, Paramount Plus, Masters.com (simulcast)

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

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Brian Ach/Getty Images

• Chamath Palihapitiya was dubbed the "next Warren Buffett" after a series of successful bets in 2019 and 2020.
• Palihapitiya even compared his returns to Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in his annual letters.
• But most of Palihapitiya's investments soured as rates soared, denting his image as the next Buffett.

Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya rode a massive wave of investment success during the low-interest rate era of the past few years, leading some to call him the next Warren Buffett.

Then interest rates spiked.

Palihapitiya's winning streak was both impressive and unique in that he helped popularize the SPAC process to bring exciting technology companies public, including Virgin Galactic, SoFi, and Opendoor, among others. The dealmaking prowess of Palihapitiya sparked comparisons that his Social Capital investment vehicle was essentially a baby Berkshire Hathaway.

"I think he's the new Buffett. He's not there in dollar terms yet, but he seems right now to have figured out a lot of things before other people, and he's executed very well," Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown said in January 2021.

Even Palihapitiya himself, who has called Buffett an inspiration, compared his investment returns to the early returns of Berkshire Hathaway in his annual shareholder letters.

At the end of Social Capital's 2018, 2019, and 2020 shareholder letters, a chart compared the early year returns of Social Capital to that of Berkshire Hathaway. And Social Capital's reported gains trounced those of Buffett's conglomerate. 

Social Capital

But after a year of aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, many of Palihapitiya's investments have soured considerably, dimming the view that the upstart investor is the successor to the Oracle of Omaha. 

Palihapitiya addressed the destruction in value seen across technology companies in Social Capital's 2022 investment letter.

"It was clear since the beginning of 2022 that technology, as a whole, was about to go through a correction. But the consequences and extent of the drawdown was a surprise to most of us. The amount of absolute value destruction, not just in companies, but entire sectors including crypto, SaaS, SPACs, and biotech was alarming. This has created a wave of destruction with many unintended consequences," Palihapitiya said.

Nearly all of the companies that Palihapitiya brought public and invested in have plunged in value, some by as much as 95% from their peaks.

And yet amid all of the destruction seen in the speculative tech space sparked by higher interest rates, one investor managed to navigate the volatility just fine: Warren Buffett.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway delivered a positive 3% return for its investors in 2022, which highlighted the storied billionaire's ability to navigate periods of high uncertainty with relative success.

Buffett's return last year handily outshined the S&P 500, which fell nearly 20%. 

Palihapitiya stopped comparing Social Capital's returns to Berkshire Hathaway's in his 2021 letter, so it's unclear if the returns of the two conglomerates are still comparable after 2022's destruction in the speculative tech space Palihapitiya knows so well. 

 

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Hi, I'm Matt Turner, the editor in chief of business at Insider. Welcome back to Insider Today's Sunday edition, a roundup of some of our top stories. 

On the agenda today:

• Young workers hate their jobs — and employers should be worried.
• How Lex Fridman's podcast became a safe space for the anti-woke tech elite.
• In today's tough housing market, boomers are sticking it to millennials.
• How an adtech employee stole a $9 million payment and used it to buy gold bars.

But first, get on the list: Insider is hosting an exclusive event in NYC the evening of April 18, exploring art and AI. Space is strictly limited — but we want to give Insider Today readers the chance to attend. 

Write to insidertoday@insider.com to tell us how AI will transform your role, your company, or your industry. We'll pick three of the most fascinating responses — and those readers will bag an invite.

Next up: Introducing our new destination for climate action.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Insider's app here.

This week's dispatch

The Metals Company; Greenpeace; Luis Alvarez/Getty Images; Karl Hendon/Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/Insider

Optimists don't just dream — they do. That's the thinking behind One Planet, our new hub for climate action. 

Expect ongoing coverage on topics such as sustainable travel and products, breakthrough technologies, and leaders who are innovating in their fields.

We'll also be hosting virtual and in-person events, introducing our first climate advisory council, and more.

Visit our One Planet hub.

Gen Zers are sick and tired of their jobs

iStock; Robyn Phelps/Insider

Young workers may not possess the experience or wisdom of their older colleagues, but they've always had one advantage in the workplace: their enthusiasm. Unattached and kid-free, they're willing to burn the midnight oil.

But since the pandemic hit, there's been a startling shift. Gen Zers and young millennials have soured on work just as much as everyone else — and that's bad news for companies everywhere.

Read the full story.

Also read:

• Gen Z job seekers are rattling older managers by asking about work-life balance in the first interview

'The next Joe Rogan'

Tyler Le/Insider

Over the past few years, Lex Fridman has gone from an unknown academic researcher to a social-media celebrity and member of Elon Musk's inner circle. In his podcast, Fridman asks scientists, historians, and artists a series of wide-eyed questions. It all seems innocent enough.

But recently, "The Lex Fridman Podcast" has become a haven for a growing and powerful sector looking to dismantle years of "wokeness." To the hordes of young men fed up with the so-called mainstream media, Fridman is challenging the status quo, one interview at a time.

More on the rise of Lex Fridman.

Boomer homebuying bonanza

Bill Oxford / Getty Images; Arif Qazi / Insider

Millennials have never had it easy in the housing market. But the sheer size of the generation and the fact that many of its members have reached prime homebuying age mean that with each passing year more millennials are literally getting their foot in the door.

But after a decade in which millennials sat atop the housing-market heap, baby boomers have suddenly and unexpectedly seized the upper hand. The sudden reversal is a sign of the financial strength of boomers, but it also underscores the bleak prospects for millennials.

How older house hunters are schooling their successors.

Read more:

• Get ready: Gen Z is coming for the housing market

Google and gold

Will Varner/Insider; Getty Images; Scott Flanders

In December, Tyler Mancuso, a 29-year-old salesperson at the adtech firm Ezoic, stopped by the precious-metals company Oxford Gold Group's building in Beverly Hills. He said he was picking up a $9 million order for 151 gold kilo bars.

But Mancuso would never get his hands on the gold — the FBI arrested him while he was en route. Court filings say he illicitly acquired the millions he'd used to pay for the gold by exploiting Ezoic's systems and rerouting a $9 million payment from Google to his own Chase bank account. 

Inside the alleged scheme to defraud Ezoic.

This week's quote:"I knew that when I wanted to go back to work, I would be judged for my time off. So I fibbed a little." 

— An anonymous accounting employee who lied on their résumé to get their current job — and thinks others should do the same.

More of this week's top reads:

• Salesforce is culling management layers, making some managers individual contributors.
• Google announces cost-saving measures across the company as it cuts staff perks.
• ABC News layoffs left insiders 'outraged' by how veteran execs' exits were handled.
• How Fred Smith's crown jewel, FedEx Express, became the company's problem child.
• Leaked email shows even Twitch's CEO was caught off guard by Amazon's layoffs.
• College dropouts explain how they built a real-estate portfolio with less than $1,000 in combined savings.
• I drove 25 electric vehicles. These are my seven favorites.
• A man built a tiny home for his mom, then set up a company so others could build one, too.

Curated by Matt Turner. Edited by Dave Smith and Lisa Ryan. Sign up for more Insider newsletters here.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Builders working at a construction site.

Getty Images

• French police have warned about an Irish gang defrauding property owners by posing as builders.
• The gang offers to pave areas with tar at a far lower price than normal but the work is substandard.
• They actually belong to the Rathkeale Rovers, a criminal clan named after a town in Ireland.

Police in France have sounded the alarm about an Irish gang posing as builders to defraud property owners after some 2,000 complaints were filed in the past five years, Le Parisien reported.

The Information, Intelligence and Strategic Analysis Service on Organized Crime (Sirasco) published a confidential note in February about "faux bitumeurs," or fake tarmackers. 

This tarmacking scam is the main activity of the "Irish Travellers," according to the report, who are actually members of the Rathkeale Rovers, a criminal clan named after a town in Ireland. 

Arthur, an asparagus grower in the Landes region, said he was approached by "builders" who claimed to have surplus tar. He saw it as an opportunity to pave an area of his farm and paid about 2,000 euros ($2,200). 

"They appeared to be professionals, and had younger builders who were presented as apprentices," Arthur told Le Parisien. However, just a few days after the work was finished, he said parts of the bitumen started coming off before it all came apart. 

Another man from Maine-et-Loire wanted to redo the path to his home and paid 2,600 euros only to later discover the tarmac was mostly made of gravel.

The workers all had Irish accents, according to the newspaper.

"The tarmackers generally present themselves as road workers and offer tarring services on the pretext of a surplus of tar from another site," Sirasco, the anti-mafia service said in the note, adding that they usually charged between 7 and 13 euros per square meter rather than the typical 40 euros.

The police believe their targets are often people who are "old and isolated," the report said.

Some members of the Rathkeale Rovers were now living in France, authorities believe, acting as a "base" for the scammers, per Le Parisien. 

Authorities were also concerned that the clan was also involved in trafficking rhino horn and ivory. 

In 2021, a French court convicted eight men who were members of the clan in relation to smuggling ivory and rhino horns, The Guardian reported. 

The French interior minister didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours. 

Read the original article on Business Insider

Ukrainian servicemen fire at Russian positions with a 105mm howitzer in the region of Donbas, on March 13, 2023.

ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images

• Ukrainian troops are rationing their shells as they face ammunition shortages, The Washington Post reported.
• Old unexploded ordnances and 3D printers to make small munitions help make up the shortfall.
• Western allies are struggling to keep up ammunition production to aid the country. 

As Ukraine faces severe ammunition shortages, troops are trying to ration their supplies and find ways of recycling old ones.

According to reporting by The Washington Post, the 59th Motorized Brigade in eastern Ukraine used to fire more than 20 or 30 shells per day with a Soviet-era howitzer — an artillery weapon similar to a cannon. As of late, they shoot only one or two — and sometimes none.

In attempts to innovate, soldiers in underground workshops recycle old unexploded ordnances and use 3D printers to make small munitions that can be dropped from drones, according to the Post. 

The military is also being more selective and precise with their targets to not waste shells.

Even so, Ukraine is still firing about 7,700 shells a day — a Ukrainian official told the news outlet on the condition of anonymity. Russia is firing triple that amount, according to some estimates. 

In the long-running bloody battles in and around Bakhmut, both sides struggle to secure ammunition and the necessary weapons to keep fighting.

Ahead of Ukraine's anticipated counter-offensive, the country relies on Western allies for more supplies — who are scrambling to keep up production with the rate of fire. 

Supplying Ukraine with enough equipment to hold off a Russian offensive is one thing, Michael Kofman, director of the Russia Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, said earlier this month. It's another for allies to be able to provide enough equipment "to attain a decisive advantage over Russian forces," he said, Insider previously reported. 

In February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, "The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of ammunition and depleting allied stockpiles." 

"The current rate of Ukraine's ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production," he added, saying allies should invest and expand in the ammunition production for Ukraine.

While the Biden administration promised to send Ukraine over 200,000 rounds of artillery, rockets, and tank rounds, the US is facing extremely high production shortages, Insider reported. 

Similarly, the European Union has created a plan to send one million rounds of ammunition but is facing challenges in meeting Ukraine's needs.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Theo Wargo/WireImage // Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile for Collision via Getty Images

• Twitter users began noticing Substack links were being suppressed beginning Thursday evening. 
• Musk denied the links were "blocked" but said he believed that Substack was "unsafe."
• Substack CEO Chris Best pushed back on Musk's assertions Saturday evening.

Over the past few days, a war between subscription-based blogging website Substack and microblogging platform Twitter has been brewing — with the CEOs of both platforms publicly responding to the controversy. 

Following the news that Twitter began suppressing links to Substack on its platform, CEO Chris Best responded to Twitter owner Elon Musk calling the situation "very frustrating" and denounced some of the claims that Musk made about the company.

One of these claims is that Substack was trying to "download a massive portion of the Twitter database," Musk wrote on Twitter Saturday, to help support its recently announced Twitter competitor, Substack Notes. 

Twitter previously suppressed links in December to competing social media platform Mastodon.

As of Saturday evening, the warning labels had disappeared, but searches were still being redirected, Insider found.

"We're glad to see that the suppression of Substack publications on Twitter appears to be over," Best and Substack co-founders Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi said in a joint statement to Insider. "This is the right move for writers, who deserve the freedom to share their work. We believe that Twitter and Substack can continue to coexist and complement each other.

"We look forward to making Substack Notes available soon, but we expect it to be a new kind of place within a subscription network, not a replacement for existing social networks."

Here's a rundown of the back-and-forth that led to Best's latest response. 

Wednesday: Substack announces Notes

On Wednesday, Substack announced in a blog post it would be rolling out a new feature called Notes, similarly styled to Twitter. Notes would allow users to post "short-form content and share ideas" that could be liked and commented on, similar to Twitter. Also like Twitter, these posts would show up in a scrolling feed. 

"While Notes may look like familiar social media feeds, the key difference is in what you don't see. The Substack network runs on paid subscriptions, not ads. This changes everything," Substack wrote in the blog post.

It was not immediately clear if the announcement and Twitter's war against Substack links are related to the release of Notes.

Thursday evening: Users begin reporting that Substack links are being suppressed 

Substack bloggers who use Twitter to promote their work began noticing Thursday evening the Substack links seemed to be suppressed on Twitter, and Twitter users who tried to interact with posts that contained Substack links would receive an error message. 

Twitter also began redirecting searches for Substack to newsletters and if anyone clicked on a Substack link, they would receive a page warning them that the link was unsafe, Insider previously observed.

—philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 8, 2023

 

Substack also noted that writers on their site were having issues trying to embed Tweets into their blog posts.

In a statement to the Verge on Friday, Best said Substack was "disappointed" in the changes.

"This abrupt change is a reminder of why writers deserve a model that puts them in charge, that rewards great work with money, and that protects the free press and free speech," Best said in the statement to the Verge. "Their livelihoods should not be tied to platforms where they don't own their relationship with their audience, and where the rules can change on a whim."

Friday: One of Musk's 'Twitter Files' journalists says he's leaving 

Matt Taibbi, a Substack blogger close to Musk who helped publicize some of Twitter's internal content moderation decisions through the "Twitter Files," wrote on his Substack blog that he would use the Substack Notes feature rather than Twitter to share his work.

Taibbi, who has tens of thousands of paid subscribers and charges $5 a month to access his content, also said the move would affect future "Twitter Files" reports. 

Taibbi specifically cited Twitter's decision to "block" Substack links on the platform and said he asked "what was going on" and was told to post articles on Twitter instead. Taibbi did not clarify who he had spoken to.

A bot that tracks the Twitter accounts of Big Tech CEOs announced that Musk unfollowed Taibbi soon after. Insider confirmed this.

On Saturday evening, Journalist Matt Binder noted that Taibbi's tweets were no longer searchable on Twitter.

Taibbi did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

In a statement to the New York Post on Saturday, Taibbi said that he appears to be caught in a "business dispute."

Saturday: Musk clarifies that Twitter never blocked Twitter notes

Musk clarified in a tweet early Saturday that Substack links were never blocked on Twitter. 

However, Twitter users were quick to point out on Twitter's Community Notes — a feature that allows contributors to add context to posts —that Twitter did prohibit users from interacting with Tweets that contained Substack links.

In the same post, Musk called Substack Notes a "Twitter clone" and claimed that Substack was "trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap" their new feature. 

He also claimed that Taibbi worked or still works as an employee for Substack. Best denied this. 

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2023

 

Substack's CEO says 'none' of Musk's claims are true 

In a Notes post retrieved by the Verge, Best responded to Musk's tweets, saying "none of this is true." 

"Substack links have been obviously severely throttled on Twitter. Anyone using the product can see this," Best wrote, in response to Musk's assertion that links to Substack were never blocked on the platform. 

Best also replied, saying that although Substack uses Twitter's API to support the platform and they believed they were in compliance with the API's terms of use, but would be "happy" to address any concerns from Musk.

Best also denied that Taibbi had been or is an employee at Substack. 

"This is very frustrating. It's one thing to mess with Substack, but quite another to treat writers this way," Best wrote. 

A press email for Twitter automatically replied with a poop emoji.

Read the original article on Business Insider

A list of "non-negotiable expectations" is going viral online.

Twitter

• A leaked list of "non-negotiable expectations" at the law firm Paul Hastings is sparking debate. 
• Some call the list "horrible," but others say it represents realistic expectations in the industry. 
• The firm told Insider "the views expressed do not reflect the views of the firm or its partners."

A leaked list of "non-negotiable expectations" for junior associates at the law firm Paul Hastings is spurring debate as some call the demands "disgusting" and others counter that the job requirements "really shouldn't surprise anyone."

The list, which was part of an internal presentation created and delivered by an associate to junior colleagues, included expectations like being online 24/7, "no exceptions, no excuses," and likened associates to waiters or "a concierge at the Four Seasons" who will drop everything to cater to the client, "who comes first and is always right." 

"You're in the big leagues, which is a privilege, act like it," the slide reads. 

In a statement to Insider, the firm confirmed "the material was prepared by an associate," but noted, "the views expressed do not reflect the views of the firm or its partners."

The list quickly went viral on social-media platforms including Reddit and Twitter, prompting discussion over whether the demands are exploitative or realistic within the industry. 

Lee Edwards, a general partner at Root Ventures, an investment firm focused on tech, wrote in a tweet on Friday that he found the expectations "horrible." 

"This is disgusting," he wrote. "This is horrible. These poor lawyers are working their asses off to please their entitled clients. Who the hell is this firm? What's their best point of contact for new business? Are they taking new venture and startup clients?"

Others, such as Benedict Evans, an independent analyst and consultant, said the list seemed to include standard asks.

"Good and helpful description of working in any top-tier profession services firm at any point in the last 30 (50?) years," he wrote in a tweet. "Yes, some people hate it and some people burn out, and some of it is performative, but this really shouldn't surprise anyone."

Regardless of the view, the slide is shedding light on wider discourse on burnout within the law industry, which has long been notorious for hefty workloads, especially among junior associates at large firms.

In recent years, the profession has seen an uptick in resignations, and studies point to growing discontent in the field: A Journal of Addiction Medicine survey of nearly 13,000 lawyers found that nearly half of the survey's respondents had experienced depression during their careers. 

Former and current Big Law associates speaking to Insider in 2021 said that while the pandemic has exacerbated stress and mental-health challenges at work, the nature of the industry lends itself to a grueling environment and a lack of work-life balance. 

"Everyone is stretched beyond capacity," one employee said. "Any semblance of separation between work and personal life has been obliterated."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

• Clarence Thomas benefactor Harlan Crow has an art collection that includes Nazi memorabilia, the Washingtonian reported.
• A visitor to Crow's home also remarked on the numerous statues of reviled 20th Century leaders in his garden.
• A bombshell ProPublica report revealed that Thomas had taken undisclosed trips funded by Crow for more than 20 years.

Harlan Crow, the GOP megadonor and billionaire benefactor to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has a collection of Adolf Hitler artifacts and Nazi memorabilia that he keeps at his Texas home, according to the Washingtonian.

The magazine reported that Crow's collection includes two of Hitler's paintings, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, the fascist dictator's 1925 manifesto, other Nazi trinkets, and a garden filled with statues of some of the most reviled leaders from the 20th Century.

Crow has reportedly said he maintains the controversial collection because he despises communism and fascism.

"I still can't get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia," an individual who has remained anonymous and who attended an event at Crow's home told the magazine. "It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room."

The individual said that among the paintings, there was "something done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler," while adding that it was "startling" and "strange" to view such sculptures at the posh residence.

In 2014, a Dallas Morning News reporter visited the home as part of a public tour of historic homes, where Crow sought to avoid questions about the statues and steer the tour toward his ornate library — along with paintings by Renoir and Monet and sculptures of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.

When the Morning News reporter finally saw the garden of dictator statues, Crow described it as an acknowledgment of the inhumanity that some men have shown to others.

The news of Crow's collection comes after a bombshell ProPublica report, which detailed how Thomas has taken luxury vacations funded by the megadonor for more than 20 years without disclosing the excursions. Two ethics law experts told the publication that Thomas appears to have violated a law passed after the 1970s-era Watergate scandal that requires members of the judiciary and members of Congress to report most gifts.

Thomas, in a response to revelations about the previously undisclosed trips, said that he was advised that it wasn't necessary to report "this sort of personal hospitality."

"Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over 25 years. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them," the justice said in a statement released by the Supreme Court's press office.

Thomas said that going forward, he would follow new guidelines set forth by the Judicial Conference of the United States, which requires that justices report any travel by private aircraft as well as excursions to destinations, including resorts and hunting lodges.

Read the original article on Business Insider