The front page of the New York Post right now has no fewer than four stories about Daniel Penny, the man on trial for murdering the mostly peaceful Jordan Neely. Penny’s fate is currently being decided by a jury.
The front page of the New York Times right now has zero stories. In the parallel universe of the NYT, Jordan Neely was never killed and Daniel Penny was never put on trial.
Photos from May 2023:
Separately, what are people thinking about the Manhattan murder of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO? A customer whose relative died after claims were denied for a treatment that, in the killer’s mind, might have saved the relative’s life? A disgruntled former employee? It can’t be an unhappy long-term shareholder. Before adjusting for inflation, the stock is up 100X compared to 30 years ago (outperforming Apple and NVDIA? (tougher to compare with NVIDIA because the company didn’t go public until 1999)):
Related:
- Any clarity on the Jordan Neely situation? (May 2023, when I was in NYC)
It is strange that the Times is missing an opportunity for … something? Maybe they can’t decide for whom they should be beating their drums and why bother covering just plain news?
AI did it. $10.2 million in annual cost savings.
https://www.newsweek.com/hospitals-are-reporting-more-insurance-denials-ai-driving-them-1977706
Lots of sensational stories say that claim denial rates increased after using an AI to decide.
What is not being discussed, is what the just claim denial rate would be, if the rules are followed exactly.
What do spam, robocalls, rent optimization software, and AI claims denial have in common?
All of them automate HALF of a negotiation process, whilst leaving consumers bearing all of the frictional costs of human attention, bureaucracy, moving, switching, call waiting, paper legal notices, etc.
If claims denial rates are truly 30%, it raises an obvious question with no good answers. Why are people submitting so many bad claims? Is the fraud rate that high? Or are there so many obtuse rules it is virtually impossible to submit a good claim? The answer is troubling no matter how you split the 30% number between fraudulent claims and frivolous denials.
Off topic, but interesting: “Boeing Plea Deal In 737 Max Crashes Rejected Over DEI Provision … required parties to consider race of the person appointed to oversee Boeing’s future compliance.”
from Bloomberg: https://archive.md/qqf05
Obama always said if you like DEI you can keep DEI!!
AAPL has returned almost 900-fold return since 1994
NVDA something like 2,900-fold since going public in early 1999 at a split-adjusted 5c per share.,
Unfortunately, thousands of people are killed by guns in this country every year. This particular case is attracting public attention because:
a) The victim was a high-level employee of a U.S. health insurance company.
b) The killing does not seem to have been random and the killer motivation remains a mystery.
c) The killer has so far gotten away. (Statistically, the chances of the assassin ever being found guilty and punished are less than 40%, as the murder clearance rate in the U.S. is below 60%.)
In my opinion (though I’m not an expert on these matters—in fact, not an expert on anything), the killer is not a professional. His gun jammed (wrong ammunition?), he escaped on a Citibike (traceable unless stolen), had coffee in a nearby Starbucks (who can resist?), and stayed in a relatively small youth hostel—all while wearing the same clothes.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/194213/crime-clearance-rate-by-type-in-the-us/
The motivation is not really that much of a mystery. It was an assassination. A good old fashioned Bomb-throwing-anarchist/Molly Maguire thing. I guess theres like a 2% chance it was his wife trying to get the life insurance money, but I doubt it.
I suppose it will be slightly interesting to see if it’s an employee, a disgruntled customer, or just a wild-eyed activist.
It makes no sense! If people are killed by guns and not by other people or bears then NYC and especially Manhattan were one of the safest places on earth, whete people with guns are descrminated against.. In reality, with assassin’s gun malfunctioning at every shot, Mr Tomson would be probably alive if he carried his gin which he is probably was carrying at home. Time for his estate to sue NYC for failure to protect and making impossible to protect himself
A high net worth individual wearing a suit in NY, in an empty street at night, is a bad idea but like the Bob Lee stabbing in San Francisco, definitely a motivated death. Maybe it was about a blog comment. Maybe the gunman identified as a golden retriever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Brian_Thompson says that he was shot on what is normally a reasonably busy street (W. 54th in midtown) and maybe right in front of a 2,000-room hotel. It was early (6:45 am) and dark (sunrise at about 7 am), but I’m surprised that there weren’t more people on the sidewalk.
I have to say that I’m a bit surprised that people on social media are so unrepentantly gleeful at the death of Brian Thompson. When they have been called out on it by a few of his defenders, they will then double down!