Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 572 posts

Re: McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source

#451

Post by csomar »

ipv6ipv4 wrote: post #285
ihaveajob wrote: post #267

I know someone who worked for McKinsey for a few years, and some of the projects he described were straight up slimy. The one I recall right now was helping a big payday lender (read: large scale loan shark) figure out how to get their money back from people who were behind on their payments. The problem was that they can only attempt to withdraw so many times from someone's bank before they're banned, so the agreed…

As a very early P2P lending participant in the early days of Prosper Lending, I've seen the other side of this. Many borrowers adopt a mindset that they have earned the money they borrowed and don't feel that they need to pay it back. I came in to Prosper with a distaste for the apparent predatory lender tactics and came out with an appreciation that not everything that seems predatory really is. While there are plen…

I'm not opposed to collection (it's your right after all) but what would you describe as a reasonably high APR?

Re: McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source

#452

Post by matthewdgreen »

arcticbull wrote: post #343
cmmeur01 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asserting your debt as more important than someone's housing does seem like a pretty shitbag thing to me.

The reality is that this is a very difficult situation all around. 1) Lenders probably shouldn't be lending money to people they know cannot repay the debts. This is also why APRs are so high - most people simply don't. 2) People who know they can't repay the debts shouldn't be borrowing in the first place. This is also why lenders have to go to such extremes to collect their debts. This is a function of being poor i…

A big part of the reason that nothing ever changes is because it isn't profitable for things to change, at least not when some moneyed interests can make a profit doing things like predatory lending and others get to have cheap employees.

In other words, the lack of a social safety net isn't just some accident that citizens blundered into. It was engineered and continues to be advanced by the people who make money from it.

Re: McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source

#454

Post by nickff »

haltingproblem wrote: post #444
nickff wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The Smartest Guys in the Room" told that story, and the short version is that Andersen was the auditor which was supposed to be ferreting out accounting issues (and has certain legal responsibilities). McKinsey was a recruiting ground and consultant.

That is not what this article says: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/mar/24/enron.theob... McKinsey was integral to designing Enron's asset light strategy and also creating the stock borrow structure, their internal talent marketplace, etc. etc. Seems like where Enron stopped and McKinsey started is hard to place.

Consultants are often deeply entwined in their companies, particularly when people like Skilling were from the consultancy.

The auditor on the other hand has a duty to the shareholders. The whole point of independent financial audits is to guarantee the completeness and veracity of financial statements.

Re: McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source

#455

Post by eggsmediumrare »

nitrogen wrote: post #440
minikites wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If big companies face no consequences, then our society will fall apart. It currently is and I don't see any sign of it stopping. The foundation was laid in the 80s, the roof fell in on January 6th, and the Democrats don't have enough of a spine to actually fix the problem because Republicans keep calling them mean names.

The fault in our society is not that one party is bad and the other party it's good, it's that both parties think that about each other and believe a whole bunch of distortions based on the extremes of either party. Rs think Ds are destroying our society just as much as Ds think Rs are doing the same. Both sides are vilifying Is for not taking enough of a stand on The Issues That Will End The World TM. The only way o…

I agree with the sentiment, but it's also not helpful to lay blame equally. It's pretty obvious that the Republican party and their peripherals (fox news, et al) have caused way more damage than the Democrats.

(Not to say that the problems in our society can be distributed fully between those two groups).

Re: McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source

#456

Post by bostonsre »

nitrogen wrote: post #440
minikites wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If big companies face no consequences, then our society will fall apart. It currently is and I don't see any sign of it stopping. The foundation was laid in the 80s, the roof fell in on January 6th, and the Democrats don't have enough of a spine to actually fix the problem because Republicans keep calling them mean names.

The fault in our society is not that one party is bad and the other party it's good, it's that both parties think that about each other and believe a whole bunch of distortions based on the extremes of either party. Rs think Ds are destroying our society just as much as Ds think Rs are doing the same. Both sides are vilifying Is for not taking enough of a stand on The Issues That Will End The World TM. The only way o…

Yea, tribal politics is so toxic and so incredibly entrenched in our government. There is no room for getting elected for someone who shuns parties in favor of saying that they decide for themselves on each and every issue and not what their tribe has already decided. I don't have the slightest clue about how to fight it or even make it slightly less bad.

Re: McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source

#458

Post by ashtonkem »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #446
ashtonkem wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m no lawyer, but providing advice to a client who then goes ahead and breaks the law with said advice sure sounds like it meets the federal charge of conspiracy.

That really depends on the the advice is. I don't see a big problem with "This would make you a bunch of money, but you should have your lawyers look at it" or "this will make you a bunch of money, but has a high legal risk". If the advice is: "this is illegal, and here is how to avoid getting caught" then I could see that being a crime.

You are adding requirements and escape clauses to the federal charge of conspiracy that are not actually in the law. Here is the relevant text of 18 U.S. Code § 371:

> If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

The question, fundamentally, is whether or not what McKinsey did counts as to "effect the object of the conspiracy". If yes, there is no magic "go talk to your lawyer" phrase to escape criminal liability, for the same reason why you can't bring a lawyer with you and depend on attorney client confidentiality to protect you from search warrants and prosecution.

Re: McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source

#459

Post by [deleted] »

eggsmediumrare wrote: post #455
nitrogen wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fault in our society is not that one party is bad and the other party it's good, it's that both parties think that about each other and believe a whole bunch of distortions based on the extremes of either party. Rs think Ds are destroying our society just as much as Ds think Rs are doing the same. Both sides are vilifying Is for not taking enough of a stand on The Issues That Will End The World TM. The only way o…

I agree with the sentiment, but it's also not helpful to lay blame equally. It's pretty obvious that the Republican party and their peripherals (fox news, et al) have caused way more damage than the Democrats. (Not to say that the problems in our society can be distributed fully between those two groups).

[deleted]

Re: McKinsey to pay $573M to settle claims over opioid crisis role: source

#460

Post by humaniania »

crumbshot wrote: post #326

This is far too low. A fine large enough to destroy the company (as was effectively done to Purdue) would have been the only palatable outcome. And even more importantly, legal repercussions for all their employees who were personally responsible for this. All this settlement achieves is 'a cost of doing business', as they say. It's not punishment or deterrence. McKinsey and other companies like them will do similar…

Justice was not done in the case of Purdue. The Sackler family absconded with billions. They still need to be held to account.
Post reply on HN