Crypto News: Pope Francis’ financial reforms

Pope Francis has been hospitalized since Feb. 14, but the work of the Vatican continues in his absence. One notable change during his reign has been its financial reforms, Flavia Rotondi writes today from Rome. Plus: Global health experts are worried about flu, measles and Ebola as the CDC makes cuts. And remaking and marketing snacks without artificial dyes is a challenge. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up.

Soon after Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis in 2013, the Argentina-born cardinal took stock of the Vatican's finances—and he didn't like what he found. After decades of scandals and allegations of money laundering, the Holy See was an unholy mess. Upon ascending to the throne, the new pontiff declared that the church should be "poor, and for the poor."

He soon created a commission to suggest reforms for the Institute for Works of Religion, or IOR (its initials in Italian). Also called the Vatican Bank, the institution was founded in 1942 to handle the finances of clergy and church organizations worldwide, overseen by a commission of cardinals in Rome. Over the decades, the IOR was involved in a litany of scandals such the failure in the 1980s of Banco Ambrosiano—a Vatican-owned bank whose former chairman was found hanged under a London bridge—and the 2010 seizure by Italian prosecutors of €23 million from an account registered to the IOR amid suspicions of money laundering.

Under Francis, the IOR began publishing annual reports for the first time and got a revamped management structure, with stricter oversight by outsiders. The Vatican implemented regulations aimed at bringing the bank into compliance with international financial standards, which spurred it to close thousands of accounts. The pope "has changed with the times," says Francesco Di Ciommo, a financial law professor at Università Luiss Guido Carli in Rome. "For too long, the IOR was sheltered from money laundering and transparency rules that applied to other financial institutions, and the church must set a good example."

St. Peter's Square in Vatican City on Easter Sunday 2023. Photographer: Andreas Solaro/AFP

Despite the pope's efforts, it's been a struggle to really bring the church's financial mavericks to heel. In 2022, a Vatican Court confirmed the conviction of two former IOR directors for malfeasance at the bank. The following year, a cardinal was sentenced to more than five years in prison for improperly investing $200 million of Holy See funds in a hedge fund run by an Italian businessman. The imbroglio ended with the fire sale of a luxury building in London's Chelsea neighborhood, leaving the Vatican more than $100 million in the hole. "A lot has been done, but there is always room for improvement," says Federico Niglia, a political science professor at Universitá per Stranieri in Perugia.

The Holy See has since centralized its investments, with all of its various arms ordered to transfer their assets to a newly formed manager controlled by the church. The goal, the Vatican has said, is to ensure the funds are managed "in line with the church's principles and contribute to a more just and sustainable world." With Francis clinging to life in a Rome hospital and said to be considering abdication, further efforts to make that happen will likely, and sadly, fall to his successor.

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The Consequences of Trump's CDC Overhaul

Illustration: Derek Zheng for Bloomberg Businessweek

To keep an eye on some of the world's most dangerous infectious diseases, scientists rely on reports from the Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network. Known affectionately as Gremlin, it's a grouping of more than 700 international labs that test about 500,000 patient samples annually. Gremlin monitors the prevalence of a huge range of pathogens in addition to those in its full name, including Covid-19, RSV, dengue, yellow fever and Ebola. And it does so on a remarkably modest budget: just $8 million a year, or less than 10% of the price tag for a single F-35 fighter jet.

Yet the program, which is managed by the World Health Organization, is suddenly on the brink of extinction. Gremlin depends on money from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flagship US public-health agency. Since its establishment in 1946, the Atlanta-based CDC has worked on the front lines of every significant infectious disease outbreak, and if any of the threats that Gremlin tracks become a major problem, the agency will be expected to play the same role again. But shortly after President Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, the lab network's staff learned its future was in doubt, because the US had pulled its funding, prompting an urgent scramble to find alternative donors.

The decision was a small but significant example of the uncertainty engulfing the CDC, which now answers to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—a longtime promoter of false claims about vaccine safety, along with other pseudoscientific notions, who was confirmed as the US secretary of health and human services on Feb. 13. As many as 700 CDC employees have been told they will lose their jobs, including hands-on scientists and lab personnel.

Trump's overhaul of the CDC has scientists worried about flu, measles and even Ebola, Jason Gale and Ashleigh Furlong write: The US Is Withdrawing From Global Health at a Dangerous Time

A Natural Alternative to Flamin' Hot

Flamin' Hot Cheetos and regular Cheetos, both artificially colored. Photographer: Desiree Rios for Bloomberg Businessweek

If a potato chip isn't bright red, will people know it's spicy? This type of question kicked off a yearlong effort by PepsiCo Inc.'s marketing innovation, research and development, and consumer insights teams to invent a new kind of seasoning. The result will hit grocery store shelves in North America on March 3: Simply Ruffles Hot & Spicy. The chips are not flaming red. They're orangish and speckled with spices, but placed next to the famous Ruffles Flamin' Hots, these chips are basically beige.

Still, they are mouth scorchers, with a heat that builds as you chew and lingers after you swallow—unlike Flamin' Hots, which punch you in the mouth as soon as they hit your tongue. But appearances matter as much as flavor does. Flamin' Hots get their cartoonishly red color from much-maligned (but still legal) artificial dyes, Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 6. The newer chips use tomato powder and red chile pepper.

"You could make it redder if you wanted to," says Ian Puddephat, vice president of research and development for food ingredients at PepsiCo. But, he says, the company chose not to. A lighter color tells the consumer that not only is this chip spicy, it's natural, too.

The Simply brand—marketed as free of artificial flavors and dyes—has been around since 2013, but it's now having a moment, Deena Shanker writes: Snack Makers Are Removing Fake Colors From Processed Foods

Auto Price Surge

$12,000

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Tough Out There

"Even people from Harvard and Yale and the M7, they're struggling. A nontarget school is going to struggle even more."

Tyler Old

30-year-old MBA graduate from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School

MBA programs that once offered a glide path to lucrative jobs are finding fewer and fewer seats on Wall Street and in corporate America for their graduates. At every one of the nation's top schools—known as the magnificent seven, or M7—job-placement outcomes have declined since 2021, and this year is looking no better.