Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - As bad as Enron?

Advisers overseeing the smoking ruin of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Group revealed a stunning list of allegations against the company’s ex-leadership Thursday, slamming what they called non-existent oversight and misuse of client funds as they try to locate billions of dollars in missing assets. “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information,” said John J. Ray III, the group’s new CEO. Seeing as Ray oversaw the liquidation of Enron, that’s really saying something. —David E. Rovella

Mortgage rates in the US faced the biggest weekly decline in nearly 41 years, providing some relief after a rapid run-up that quickly priced out homebuyers. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.61%, the lowest level in almost two months. 

Oaktree Capital Group co-founder Howard Marks sees one of the best buying opportunities since the 2008 financial crisis. As higher interest rates and nagging fears of a downturn push companies into distress, an accompanying shift in consumer appetite alongside higher borrowing costs will lead to “significant distress” at many firms, he said. “We’re going to reach a point where they consider it hopeless,” Marks said of investors. “And that’s when you get the big buys. That’s when you get to be a buyer of assets cheap.”

Howard Marks Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg

First he fired half of the company. Then senior employees he wanted to keep fled. Then he gave an ultimatum to his remaining workers. Now more of them are quitting than he expected. Elon Musk has owned Twitter for a few weeks, but he’s already made his mark.

Meanwhile the billionaire has been accused of illegally terminating people at another of his companies—because they were critical of him. SpaceX fired nine people earlier this year in retaliation for comments about Musk and the company’s culture, according to a complaint with federal regulators. The terminated SpaceX workers include authors of an open letter protesting “inappropriate, disparaging, sexually charged comments on Twitter” by Musk, according to the Wednesday filing with the US National Labor Relations Board. 

Elon Musk Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said taking back Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014, as well as the country’s eastern Donbas region where pro-Moscow rebels have held sway are his conditions for bringing Vladimir Putin’s nine-month war to an end. A Dutch court found three men associated with Russian security services guilty in the destruction of a passenger airliner flying over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people.

Now that the Republican Party has secured a slim majority in the US House of Representatives, one of its priorities will be investigating President Joe Biden, his cabinet and his family. With the Democrats in control of the Senate, little in the way of legislation is likely. But GOP lawmakers have been laying the groundwork for wide-ranging probes and oversight that, at least in part, will serve as payback for investigations of Donald Trump, who despite running for president again remains the subject of at least two federal criminal investigations.

Nancy Pelosi announced she will step down as House Democratic leader, ending her history-making tenure as the first woman to serve as speaker and opening the way for a generational change in her party’s congressional leadership. Pelosi, 82, has led House Democrats for almost two decades.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy, both of California, in 2019. McCarthy will take over as Speaker in January as his party takes control of the chamber. Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP

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• Bankman-Fried is telling his side of the FTX collapse—in tweets.
• FTX’s bankruptcy lawyers are less than happy about it though.
• Putin puts arch-rival Alexei Navalny in solitary confinement.
• Zelenskiy softens stance on origin of rocket that killed two in Poland.
• Trump’s ex-CFO tells jury he and others committed tax fraud.
• New Zealand real estate whiplash: this seller is throwing in a free Tesla.
• Ticketmaster halts Taylor Swift ticket sales; Live Nation shares drop.

A dark corner of the glamorous air-charter market, where some flight operators appear to cut corners on safety, is putting passengers at risk. Fatal crashes, an upswing in enforcement cases, reports made to an industry tip line and accounts by legitimate operators indicate the problem has been growing at a time when crashes of legitimate flights are at an all-time low. There’s also a lack of awareness among owners and customers.

Source: NTSB

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