© 2016 the new york times when you dial 911 acaustic ... · 26/06/2016  · democratic bloc of...

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Late Edition A Tennessee woman slipped into a coma and died after an am- bulance company took so long to assemble a crew that one worker had time for a cigarette break. Paramedics in New York had to covertly swipe medical supplies from a hospital to restock their de- pleted ambulances after emer- gency runs. A man in the suburban South watched a chimney fire burn his house to the ground as he waited for the fire department, which billed him anyway and then sued him for $15,000 when he did not pay. In each of these cases, someone dialed 911 and Wall Street an- swered. The business of driving ambu- lances and operating fire brigades represents just one facet of a pro- found shift on Wall Street and Main Street alike, an investigation by The New York Times has found. Since the 2008 financial cri- sis, private equity firms, the “cor- porate raiders” of an earlier era, have increasingly taken over a wide array of civic and financial services that are central to every- day American life. Today, people interact with pri- vate equity when they dial 911, pay their mortgage, play a round of golf or turn on the kitchen tap for a glass of water. Private equity put a unique stamp on these businesses. Unlike other for-profit companies, which have years of experience offering a service, private equity is pri- marily skilled in making money. And in many of these businesses, The Times found, private equity firms applied a sophisticated moneymaking playbook: a mix of cost cuts, price increases and liti- gation. In emergency services, this ap- proach creates a fundamental ten- sion: the push to turn a profit while caring for people in their most vulnerable moments. For governments and their citi- zens, the effects have often been dire. Under private equity owner- ship, some ambulance response times worsened, heart monitors failed and companies slid into bankruptcy, according to a Times examination of thousands of pages of internal documents and government records, as well as in- terviews with dozens of former employees. In at least two cases, lawsuits contend, poor service led to patient deaths. Private equity gained new power and responsibility as a di- rect result of the 2008 crisis. As cities and towns nationwide struggled to pay for basics like public infrastructure and ambu- lance services, private equity stepped in. At the same time, as banks scaled back their mortgage operations after the crisis, private equity firms — which face lighter regulation than banks — moved in there as well. The power shift has happened with relatively little scrutiny, even as federal authorities have tight- ened the rules for banks. Unlike banks, which take deposits and borrow from the government, pri- vate equity firms invest money from wealthy individuals and pen- sion funds desperate for returns at a time of historically low inter- est rates. Since the financial crisis, pri- vate equity firms have gone from managing $1 trillion to managing $4.3 trillion — more than the value of Germany’s gross domestic product — according to the advi- sory firm Triago. Retirement nest eggs are fueling the growth and sharing in private equity’s risks and returns: Nearly half of pri- vate equity’s invested assets come from pensions. “There is private equity — a lot of it — and it’s happening every- A firefighter for Rural/Metro, a company until recently fi- nanced by private equity. DAVID JOLKOVSKI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES When You Dial 911 And Wall St. Answers Squeezed for Profit by Private Equity, Emergency Services Fail to Deliver This article is by Danielle Ivory, Ben Protess and Kitty Bennett. BOTTOM LINE NATION Pitting Care Against Costs Continued on Page 16 LONDON — Britain’s historic vote to leave the European Union is already threatening to unravel a democratic bloc of nations that has coexisted peacefully together for decades. But it is also generat- ing uncertainty about an even big- ger issue: Is the post-1945 order imposed on the world by the United States and its allies un- raveling, too? Britain’s choice to retreat into what some critics of the vote sug- gest is a “Little England” status is just one among many loosely linked developments suggesting the potential for a reordering of power, economic relationships, borders and ideologies around the globe. Slow economic growth has un- dercut confidence in traditional liberal economics, especially in the face of the dislocations caused by trade and surging immigration. Populism has sprouted through- out the West. Borders in the Mid- dle East are being erased amid a rise in sectarianism. China is growing more assertive and Rus- sia more adventurous. Refugees from poor and war-torn places are crossing land and sea in record numbers to get to the better lives shown to them by modern com- munications. Accompanied by an upending of politics and middle-class assump- tions in both the developed and the developing worlds, these forces are combining as never be- fore to challenge the Western in- stitutions and alliances that were established after World War II and that have largely held global sway ever since. Britain has been a pillar in that order, as well as a beneficiary. It has an important (some would ar- gue outsize) place in the United Nations, and a role in NATO, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank — the postwar in- stitutions invested with promot- ing global peace, security and eco- Pro-European Union protesters held the bloc’s flag at a demonstration in London on Saturday. ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES A Test of Western Alliances and Institutions This article is by Jim Yardley, Ali- son Smale, Jane Perlez and Ben Hubbard. Continued on Page 8 A CAUSTIC POSTWAR UNRAVELING In Berlin, a reader of Bild, a German newspaper, caught up Sat- urday on news of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. AXEL SCHMIDT/REUTERS For Hillary Clinton, Britain’s emotionally charged uprising against the European Union is the sort of populist victory over estab- lishment politics that she fears in the coming presidential election. Mrs. Clinton shares more with the defeated “Remain” campaign than just their common slogan, “Stronger Together.” Her funda- mental argument, much akin to Prime Minister David Cameron’s against British withdrawal from the European Union, is that Amer- icans should value stability and in- cremental change over the risks entailed in radical change and the possibility of chaos if Donald J. Trump wins the presidency. She offers reasonableness in- stead of resentment, urging voters to see the big picture and promising to manage economic and immigration upheaval, just as Mr. Cameron did. She, too, is a pragmatic internationalist bat- tling against nationalist anger, cautioning that the turmoil after the so-called Brexit vote under- scores a need for “calm, steady, experienced leadership in the ‘Brexit’ Revolt Casts a Shadow Over Clinton’s Path of Caution By PATRICK HEALY Continued on Page 7 The sales pitches seeking to separate Cheryl Lankford from her money began during the re- cession as she struggled to get back on her feet after the death of her husband, an American soldier serving in Iraq. Two of them were from compa- nies that have boasted the Trump name. One was Trump University, the real estate sales seminar that Donald J. Trump promoted as a way for average people to profit from opportunities in the housing market. Ms. Lankford said she spent $35,000 from an Army in- surance payment to learn Mr. Trump’s secrets. Another was Cambridge Who’s Who, a vanity publisher promis- ing “branding services” that seemed to complement the real estate business she hoped to cre- ate. She paid thousands of dollars to Cambridge, whose spokesman and “executive director of global branding” was Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr. Six years later, Ms. Lankford, who is 44 and has a son, has little to show for the money she spent, aside from a nagging sense that she was taken advantage of. Sev- eral friends in her community in San Antonio fell for similar offers, she said, but most are not eager to talk about it. “As a widow, you find you were so dependent on your husband, and when you make a mistake be- cause of predatory businesses, it’s embarrassing,” Ms. Lankford said. “We’re an easy target.” “Easy target” might describe the audience for several enter- prises stamped with the Trump brand that have been accused of When the Name Was Trump, Buyers Saw a Sign of Trust By MIKE McINTIRE Continued on Page 19 Charcoal has become one of the biggest engines of Africa’s informal economy, but it is also one of the greatest threats to the continent’s environment. PAGE 6 INTERNATIONAL 6-10 Charcoal Boom’s Searing Effect The United States has closed the case on Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide Finan- cial’s former chief, but people hurt by its lending have not. Fair Game. PAGE 1 SUNDAY BUSINESS Countrywide’s Harm Lives On For Michael Phelps, the road to becom- ing the Olympics’ most decorated ath- lete was steep. At 30, he is now on a more personal journey. PAGE 1 SPORTSSUNDAY Phelps Finding Phelps U(D547FD)v+$!]!/!#!] Tony Blair PAGE 4 SUNDAY REVIEW American companies of all sizes worry that Britain’s decision may signal the end of global open mar- kets. Sunday Business, Page 1. Fearing Effects on Trade LONDON — With British poli- tics in turmoil, there were already clear indications on Saturday of a tense and bickering divorce from the European Union. Britons woke up to a diminished currency and much confusion about the consequences of their vote on Thursday to quit the Euro- pean Union, including who would be their next prime minister. The leaders of the campaign to exit the bloc, or “Brexit,” continued to dis- agree over what kind of relation- ship they wanted with Europe, and thousands of Britons started signing a petition asking for a sec- ond referendum. Meeting in Berlin, European leaders told Britain to hurry up and begin the formal process of exiting the union, while Prime Minister David Cameron said that process could wait until his re- placement was chosen in October and leaders of the “Leave” cam- paign suggested it could come even later, after a new round of talks with Brussels. “I do not understand why the British government needs until October to decide whether to send the divorce letter to Brussels,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the presi- Europe Urges Dazed Britain To Get Moving By STEVEN ERLANGER and DAN BILEFSKY Continued on Page 8 The Tennessee distillery behind one of the world’s best-selling whiskeys is using its 150th anniversary to open up about its complicated roots. PAGE 4 NATIONAL 4, 13-19 The Slave Past of Jack Daniel’s Bill Cunningham, who turned fashion photography into his own branch of cultural anthropology on the streets of New York, chroni- cling an era’s ever-changing social scene for The New York Times by training his busily observant lens on what people wore — stylishly, flamboyantly or just plain sensi- bly — died on Saturday in Manhat- tan. He was 87. His death was confirmed by The Times. He had been hospital- ized recently after having a stroke. Mr. Cunningham was such a singular presence in the city that, in 2009, he was designated a living landmark. And he was an easy one to spot, riding his bicycle through Midtown, where he did most of his field work: his bony- thin frame draped in his utilitarian blue French worker’s jacket, khaki pants and black sneakers (he himself was no one’s idea of a fashion plate), with his 35-milli- meter camera slung around his neck, ever at the ready for the next fashion statement to come around the corner. Nothing escaped his notice: not the fanny packs, not the Birkin bags, not the gingham shirts, not the fluorescent biker shorts. In his nearly 40 years working for The Times, Mr. Cunningham snapped away at changing dress BILL CUNNINGHAM, 1929-2016 ALens on Style, Low and High, On the Street By JACOB BERNSTEIN The Times fashion chronicler Bill Cunningham in the 2010 film “Bill Cunningham New York.” FIRST THOUGHT FILMS/ZEITGEIST FILMS Continued on Page 18 VOL. CLXV . . . No. 57,275 © 2016 The New York Times NEW YORK, SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 2016 $6 beyond the greater New York metropolitan area. $5.00 Today, mostly sunny, very warm, high 87. Tonight, partly cloudy, mild, low 67. Tomorrow, sunshine giving way to increasing clouds, high 86. Details, SportsSunday, Page 12.

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Page 1: © 2016 The New York Times When You Dial 911 ACAUSTIC ... · 26/06/2016  · democratic bloc of nations that has coexisted peacefully together for decades. But it is also generat-ing

Late Edition

C M Y K Nxxx,2016-06-26,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

A Tennessee woman slippedinto a coma and died after an am-bulance company took so long toassemble a crew that one workerhad time for a cigarette break.

Paramedics in New York had tocovertly swipe medical suppliesfrom a hospital to restock their de-pleted ambulances after emer-gency runs.

A man in the suburban Southwatched a chimney fire burn his

house to the ground as he waitedfor the fire department, whichbilled him anyway and then suedhim for $15,000 when he did notpay.

In each of these cases, someonedialed 911 and Wall Street an-swered.

The business of driving ambu-lances and operating fire brigadesrepresents just one facet of a pro-found shift on Wall Street andMain Street alike, an investigationby The New York Times hasfound. Since the 2008 financial cri-sis, private equity firms, the “cor-porate raiders” of an earlier era,have increasingly taken over awide array of civic and financialservices that are central to every-day American life.

Today, people interact with pri-vate equity when they dial 911, paytheir mortgage, play a round ofgolf or turn on the kitchen tap for aglass of water.

Private equity put a uniquestamp on these businesses. Unlike

other for-profit companies, whichhave years of experience offeringa service, private equity is pri-marily skilled in making money.And in many of these businesses,The Times found, private equityfirms applied a sophisticatedmoneymaking playbook: a mix ofcost cuts, price increases and liti-gation.

In emergency services, this ap-proach creates a fundamental ten-sion: the push to turn a profitwhile caring for people in theirmost vulnerable moments.

For governments and their citi-zens, the effects have often beendire. Under private equity owner-ship, some ambulance responsetimes worsened, heart monitorsfailed and companies slid intobankruptcy, according to a Timesexamination of thousands ofpages of internal documents andgovernment records, as well as in-terviews with dozens of formeremployees. In at least two cases,lawsuits contend, poor service ledto patient deaths.

Private equity gained newpower and responsibility as a di-rect result of the 2008 crisis. Ascities and towns nationwidestruggled to pay for basics likepublic infrastructure and ambu-lance services, private equitystepped in. At the same time, asbanks scaled back their mortgageoperations after the crisis, privateequity firms — which face lighterregulation than banks — moved inthere as well.

The power shift has happenedwith relatively little scrutiny, evenas federal authorities have tight-ened the rules for banks. Unlikebanks, which take deposits andborrow from the government, pri-vate equity firms invest moneyfrom wealthy individuals and pen-sion funds desperate for returnsat a time of historically low inter-est rates.

Since the financial crisis, pri-vate equity firms have gone frommanaging $1 trillion to managing$4.3 trillion — more than the valueof Germany’s gross domesticproduct — according to the advi-sory firm Triago. Retirement nesteggs are fueling the growth andsharing in private equity’s risksand returns: Nearly half of pri-vate equity’s invested assetscome from pensions.

“There is private equity — a lotof it — and it’s happening every-

A firefighter for Rural/Metro,a company until recently fi-nanced by private equity.

DAVID JOLKOVSKI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

When You Dial 911

And Wall St. Answers

Squeezed for Profit by Private Equity,

Emergency Services Fail to Deliver

This article is by Danielle Ivory,Ben Protess and Kitty Bennett.

BOTTOM LINE NATION

Pitting Care Against Costs

Continued on Page 16

LONDON — Britain’s historicvote to leave the European Unionis already threatening to unravel ademocratic bloc of nations thathas coexisted peacefully togetherfor decades. But it is also generat-ing uncertainty about an even big-ger issue: Is the post-1945 orderimposed on the world by theUnited States and its allies un-raveling, too?

Britain’s choice to retreat intowhat some critics of the vote sug-gest is a “Little England” status isjust one among many looselylinked developments suggestingthe potential for a reordering ofpower, economic relationships,borders and ideologies around theglobe.

Slow economic growth has un-dercut confidence in traditionalliberal economics, especially inthe face of the dislocations causedby trade and surging immigration.Populism has sprouted through-out the West. Borders in the Mid-dle East are being erased amid arise in sectarianism. China isgrowing more assertive and Rus-sia more adventurous. Refugeesfrom poor and war-torn places arecrossing land and sea in recordnumbers to get to the better livesshown to them by modern com-munications.

Accompanied by an upending ofpolitics and middle-class assump-tions in both the developed andthe developing worlds, theseforces are combining as never be-fore to challenge the Western in-stitutions and alliances that wereestablished after World War IIand that have largely held globalsway ever since.

Britain has been a pillar in thatorder, as well as a beneficiary. Ithas an important (some would ar-gue outsize) place in the UnitedNations, and a role in NATO, theInternational Monetary Fund andthe World Bank — the postwar in-stitutions invested with promot-ing global peace, security and eco-

Pro-European Union protesters held the bloc’s flag at a demonstration in London on Saturday.

ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Test of WesternAlliances and Institutions

This article is by Jim Yardley, Ali-son Smale, Jane Perlez and BenHubbard.

Continued on Page 8

A CAUSTIC POSTWAR UNRAVELING

In Berlin, a reader of Bild, a German newspaper, caught up Sat-urday on news of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

AXEL SCHMIDT/REUTERS

For Hillary Clinton, Britain’semotionally charged uprisingagainst the European Union is thesort of populist victory over estab-lishment politics that she fears inthe coming presidential election.

Mrs. Clinton shares more withthe defeated “Remain” campaignthan just their common slogan,“Stronger Together.” Her funda-mental argument, much akin toPrime Minister David Cameron’sagainst British withdrawal fromthe European Union, is that Amer-icans should value stability and in-

cremental change over the risksentailed in radical change and thepossibility of chaos if Donald J.Trump wins the presidency.

She offers reasonableness in-stead of resentment, urgingvoters to see the big picture andpromising to manage economicand immigration upheaval, just asMr. Cameron did. She, too, is apragmatic internationalist bat-tling against nationalist anger,cautioning that the turmoil afterthe so-called Brexit vote under-scores a need for “calm, steady,experienced leadership in the

‘Brexit’ Revolt Casts a Shadow

Over Clinton’s Path of Caution

By PATRICK HEALY

Continued on Page 7

The sales pitches seeking toseparate Cheryl Lankford fromher money began during the re-cession as she struggled to getback on her feet after the death ofher husband, an American soldierserving in Iraq.

Two of them were from compa-nies that have boasted the Trumpname.

One was Trump University, thereal estate sales seminar thatDonald J. Trump promoted as away for average people to profitfrom opportunities in the housingmarket. Ms. Lankford said shespent $35,000 from an Army in-surance payment to learn Mr.Trump’s secrets.

Another was Cambridge Who’sWho, a vanity publisher promis-ing “branding services” thatseemed to complement the realestate business she hoped to cre-ate. She paid thousands of dollars

to Cambridge, whose spokesmanand “executive director of globalbranding” was Mr. Trump’s eldestson, Donald Jr.

Six years later, Ms. Lankford,who is 44 and has a son, has littleto show for the money she spent,aside from a nagging sense thatshe was taken advantage of. Sev-eral friends in her community inSan Antonio fell for similar offers,she said, but most are not eager totalk about it.

“As a widow, you find you wereso dependent on your husband,and when you make a mistake be-cause of predatory businesses, it’sembarrassing,” Ms. Lankfordsaid. “We’re an easy target.”

“Easy target” might describethe audience for several enter-prises stamped with the Trumpbrand that have been accused of

When the Name Was Trump,

Buyers Saw a Sign of Trust

By MIKE McINTIRE

Continued on Page 19

Charcoal has become one of the biggestengines of Africa’s informal economy,but it is also one of the greatest threatsto the continent’s environment. PAGE 6

INTERNATIONAL 6-10

Charcoal Boom’s Searing EffectThe United States has closed the caseon Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide Finan-cial’s former chief, but people hurt byits lending have not. Fair Game. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

Countrywide’s Harm Lives OnFor Michael Phelps, the road to becom-ing the Olympics’ most decorated ath-lete was steep. At 30, he is now on amore personal journey. PAGE 1

SPORTSSUNDAY

Phelps Finding Phelps

U(D547FD)v+$!]!/!#!]Tony Blair PAGE 4

SUNDAY REVIEW

American companies of all sizesworry that Britain’s decision maysignal the end of global open mar-kets. Sunday Business, Page 1.

Fearing Effects on Trade

LONDON — With British poli-tics in turmoil, there were alreadyclear indications on Saturday of atense and bickering divorce fromthe European Union.

Britons woke up to a diminishedcurrency and much confusionabout the consequences of theirvote on Thursday to quit the Euro-pean Union, including who wouldbe their next prime minister. Theleaders of the campaign to exit thebloc, or “Brexit,” continued to dis-agree over what kind of relation-ship they wanted with Europe,and thousands of Britons startedsigning a petition asking for a sec-ond referendum.

Meeting in Berlin, Europeanleaders told Britain to hurry upand begin the formal process ofexiting the union, while PrimeMinister David Cameron said thatprocess could wait until his re-placement was chosen in Octoberand leaders of the “Leave” cam-paign suggested it could comeeven later, after a new round oftalks with Brussels.

“I do not understand why theBritish government needs untilOctober to decide whether to sendthe divorce letter to Brussels,”Jean-Claude Juncker, the presi-

Europe Urges

Dazed Britain

To Get Moving

By STEVEN ERLANGERand DAN BILEFSKY

Continued on Page 8

The Tennessee distillery behind one ofthe world’s best-selling whiskeys isusing its 150th anniversary to open upabout its complicated roots. PAGE 4

NATIONAL 4, 13-19

The Slave Past of Jack Daniel’s

Bill Cunningham, who turnedfashion photography into his ownbranch of cultural anthropologyon the streets of New York, chroni-cling an era’s ever-changing socialscene for The New York Times bytraining his busily observant lenson what people wore — stylishly,flamboyantly or just plain sensi-bly — died on Saturday in Manhat-tan. He was 87.

His death was confirmed byThe Times. He had been hospital-ized recently after having astroke.

Mr. Cunningham was such asingular presence in the city that,in 2009, he was designated a livinglandmark. And he was an easyone to spot, riding his bicyclethrough Midtown, where he did

most of his field work: his bony-thin frame draped in his utilitarianblue French worker’s jacket,khaki pants and black sneakers(he himself was no one’s idea of afashion plate), with his 35-milli-

meter camera slung around hisneck, ever at the ready for thenext fashion statement to comearound the corner.

Nothing escaped his notice: notthe fanny packs, not the Birkin

bags, not the gingham shirts, notthe fluorescent biker shorts.

In his nearly 40 years workingfor The Times, Mr. Cunninghamsnapped away at changing dress

BILL CUNNINGHAM, 1929-2016

ALens on Style,

Low and High,

On the Street

By JACOB BERNSTEIN

The Times fashion chronicler Bill Cunningham in the 2010 film “Bill Cunningham New York.”

FIRST THOUGHT FILMS/ZEITGEIST FILMS

Continued on Page 18

VOL. CLXV . . . No. 57,275 © 2016 The New York Times NEW YORK, SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 2016 $6 beyond the greater New York metropolitan area. $5.00

Today, mostly sunny, very warm,high 87. Tonight, partly cloudy, mild,low 67. Tomorrow, sunshine givingway to increasing clouds, high 86.Details, SportsSunday, Page 12.