The headlines caught my attention “ For Profit U.S. Colleges Attract Investor Interest”. After the debacle of Corinthians schools, ITT and De Vries, where thousands of students were left hanging owing money or holding useless degrees, the mere indication that for profit schools are having another round sends a red flag. It was a short article in the business section of Reuters News Service talking about two for pro profit schools companies, Strayer Education Inc and Capella Education Co, having made (more…)
Values
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Medecins Sans Frontieres–A Lesson In Principles
If there’s one group that meets with as much approbation as one can in our modern world, it is Medecins Sans Frontieres. They recently turned down a million doses of a pneumonia vaccine from Pfizer, the big pharma giant. The head of MSF explained why. Pfizer’s was a one time donation. Sure many children would benefit and many lives would be saved. But that would not solve the problem. The problem is how unaffordable the vaccine PCV13 sold as Prevnar 13, is. A course of treatment is 3 to 4 doses, and one doze in Morocco costs (more…)
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Donor Advised Funds
I had not heard of donor-advised funds until I read about them quite recently. They are funds similar to private foundations, where the donor can advise where his or her money is to go. Say you have a few millions, instead of donating them straight to a charity, you can give them to a DAF and instruct them where to disburse the money. Perhaps a family member has had cancer raising your interest in the disease and you would then specify the money is to go to a cancer charity, or as I understand it, a specific organization. These funds have recently come to attention because of an article written in the New York Review of Books stating that they interfere with (more…)