| There's been no shortage of news in 2022. War arrived in Europe. Big Tech slumped. Markets slumped. Crypto imploded. Energy markets were upended. The Fed hiked rates. China moved away from Covid Zero. On The Big Take, we're in a unique position in the Bloomberg newsroom. The team gets to shepherd the best features and analysis from our global team of reporters. It means we get the luxury of getting to cover a lot of ground in a year. As we reflect on 2022 — and anticipate what's ahead — our team wanted to share with you the stories that might have been missed in the onslaught of news, the ones we enjoyed reading and the ones we thought were worth a second look. We wish you happy reading and listening (P.S. Have you subscribed to our podcast yet?). One Tweet Exposed an Elite London Firm's Toxic Workplace By Olivia Konotey-Ahulu This deeply reported story about one of Britain's oldest institutions reveals entrenched elitism, misogyny and above all racism at a time when the UK is questioning more than ever before the extent to which unconscious biases have shaped daily life here. It's full of eye-opening anecdotes and powerful quotes, like this one: "The fanciness of the organization is really to cover up how horrible it is. It's like wrapping mud up in Gucci wrapping paper." - Caroline Alexander, Senior Editor  Elite London firm Savills faces allegations it hasn't done enough to address a toxic culture at the office. Photographer: Sophie Green for Bloomberg Businessweek The 18 Minutes of Trading Chaos That Broke the Nickel Market By Jack Farchy, Alfred Cang, and Mark Burton A Tiny Lab Finds Danger on Drugstore Shelves While the FDA Lags Behind By Anna Edney It has been a year of market calamities, and while the crypto meltdown is most front-of-mind these days, the chaos that gripped the nickel market earlier this year was uniquely astonishing. In a memorable Big Take from March, Jack Farchy, Alfred Cang and Mark Burton reconstructed the chain of events that plunged London's famous metal market into complete turmoil. My other favorite Big Take this year gave readers a close look at the crusading product-testing company Valisure, which has detected potentially cancer-causing chemicals in everything from heartburn medicine to hair products to hand sanitizer. Anna Edney has long owned this beat and her November story on Valisure was a tour de force. - Tim Annett, Editor  David Light, chief executive officer of Valisure. Valisure has challenged the FDA by independently finding dangerous chemicals in drugstore medicines. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg Big US Banks Fall Short on Promises to Create Black Homeowners By Shawn Donnan, Ann Choi and Christopher Cannon The largest US banks have collectively pledged $120 billion to increase lending to Black homebuyers and help right one of the country's great economic wrongs. But that isn't actually playing out on the ground. I loved this investigation because the reporters brought to life 15 years worth of data on over 50 million mortgages by zooming in one block in Baltimore. And the findings, though perhaps unsurprising, are key in the broader story of the continued inequities Black communities face in America. - Danielle Balbi, Senior Editor  Abandoned and inhabited row houses along Walbrook Avenue in West Baltimore, Maryland. Photographer: Nathan Howard/Bloomberg Larry Ellison's Lanai Isn't For You — Or the People Who Live There By Sophie Alexander This story of how Oracle's Larry Ellison effectively became lord and master of a Hawaiian island – and all its people and businesses — was deeply reported, lavishly produced and transported me to a faraway world where billionaire capitalism rules. It succeeds by being both a hyperlocal story and a parable of our very particular era. — Adam Blenford, Editor A 102-Mile Wall Is Separating an Island's Haves and Have-Nots By Jim Wyss One of my favorite stories this year took us to the island of Hispaniola, where the Dominican Republic has built a hundred-mile-long border wall to separate itself from Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas. This is a flash point of the immigration debate raging across the globe — particularly after the pandemic sank hundreds of millions of people in developing countries deeper into poverty. Though it's about a very specific place, this story is also about a very universal human problem: how we deal with outsiders economically, diplomatically and physically. -Silvia Killingsworth, Head of US editing hub and Big Take  There's another border wall being built. This one is between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Photographer: Tatiana Fernndez Geara Xi's First Decade Made China a Paradox of Confidence and Anxiety This year, China erupted into some of the biggest protests since the Tiananmen crisis; upended policies on its vast property industry and zero-tolerance Covid approach; and watched as its most powerful leader in decades set himself up to rule for life. And that's just since October. This nuanced, insightful piece makes sense of the backdrop to that relentless firehose of news. It's a window into the bookshops, bars and heavily surveilled streets of a country that matters so much — but has been out of bounds to foreigners for the past three years (although maybe not for much longer). -Alyssa McDonald, Executive Editor How a Celebrity CEO's Rule of Fear Helped Bring Down Hot Startup Zilingo By Yoolim Lee, Olivia Poh, David Ramli and Faris Mokhtar For me, this is the kind of story that makes for great journalism here at Bloomberg, which is an exclusive, inside tale of an important company (here, it imploded) with a combination of follow the money (hundreds of millions raised), entangled with some of the biggest investors (Sequoia, for example) and deep reporting (interviews with more than 60 people). The retelling of how this happened and the details are incredible. — Catherine Ngai, Asia Equities Team Leader  Ankiti Bose, co-founder of Zilingo, was fired in May as chief executive officer of the Singapore startup. Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg How a Cocaine-Smuggling Cartel Infiltrated the World's Biggest Shipping Company Lauren Etter and Michael Riley's opus on the cocaine smuggling trade and its connection to the world's biggest shipping company is one of my must-reads. Their feature, based on interviews with more than 100 people in a dozen countries, showed how the Mediterranean Shipping Co. dominates routes that double as the globe's cocaine superhighways. Read the stunning Businessweek feature, listen to the duo explain their findings on the Big Take podcast (including behind-the-scenes details on a 20-ton, $1 billion coke bust), and watch the corresponding documentary. All not to be missed. - Elisabeth Ponsot, Editor Big Take In Trust: A Century of Lost Wealth By Rachel Adams Heard For a time, the Osage Nation reaped the benefits of the oil wealth in present-day Oklahoma. But where did all that money and land go? As a multimedia editor, I couldn't help but choose this investigative history-meets-mystery podcast by Rachel Adams Heard. Rachel masterfully illustrates all the ways White Americans used business and government systems to exploit the Osage. It's an important story because it ties what happened in the early 1900s — which in the grand scheme of things wasn't all that long ago — directly to the present. You'll also hear from voices that often are sidelined in conversations around wealth in America. It's an incredible tale and one I hope you listen to. - Margaret Sutherlin, Big Take Multimedia Editor
 The Osage Nation is slowly buying back its land — and independence — one parcel at a time. Photographer: Shane Brown Where Does Your Plastic Go? As an originating premise, "Where does your plastic go after you put it in the recycling bin?" had me at jump. And when you hear Bloomberg senior writer Kit Chellel explain how that question led him to a cross-continental journey following the life cycle of a piece of plastic, well, that's the stuff of both journalism and story-telling. To then follow that up with on the ground reporting from Thailand by Bloomberg reporter Matt Campbell, we get right to the heart of why it matters and the effects on the people living in the region — that seals the deal for me as quite a standout episode. As the supervising producer of the Big Take podcast, I listen to all of our episodes in their various forms along the editing timeline, and this one really sticks with me as a deeply reported and well-told story that offers the best of both our newsroom reach and our creative story-telling team. - Vicki Vergolina, Supervising Producer The Big Take podcast | 
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