(HorizonPost.com) – Once the mayor of South Bend, IN, Pete Buttigieg — colloquially known as “Mayor Pete” — broke into the spotlight of national politics when he ran for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President. Joe Biden eventually won the party nod and the office. Former Mayor Pete has instead been appointed, confirmed, and sworn in as the freshly-minted United States Secretary of Transportation.
Before He Was Mayor
After receiving his college degree from Oxford University in the United Kingdom, Buttigieg landed his first job with McKinsey & Company, which the New York Times once called “the world’s most prestigious management-consulting firm.” He was given a list of clients to work with, and he dug into it.
One of his clients was the Canadian supermarket chain Loblaw’s, and he worked on their behalf in Toronto for much of 2008, “analyzing its grocery prices.” Just as he was starting up his presidential candidacy, it was announced the company had admitted to colluding with other food chains in the area in a price-fixing scheme for bread. When asked about it by a New York Times editorial board member, his response was a sharp “bullsh**.”
McKinsey and the Opioids
By definition, consulting firms provide all sorts of companies with assistance to help grow their bottom line. What kind of advice, and, more importantly, who they gave guidance to must become a consideration, and Mayor Pete’s old firm didn’t heed that idea.
On February 4, 2021, McKinsey revealed an agreement to pay $573 million for their role in the opioid epidemic that’s raged across America, killed so many people and ruined so many lives. On February 1, 2019, the New York Times ran an article saying the company was implicated in a lawsuit in Massachusetts because they had assisted Purdue Pharma, which produces OxyContin, on:
“How to’ turbocharge’ sales of OxyContin… counter efforts by drug enforcement agents to reduce opiate use… to counter the emotional messages from others with teenagers that overdosed…”
To be clear, there’s no indication that Secretary Buttigieg had anything to do with how his old firm advised the drugmaker, but it does raise the question: how sound is his judgment? We’re also left to wonder whether President Joe Biden has discussed this with him. Or is this another indication that America has returned to the swampy old politics of years gone by?
There’s likely more to this story. We’ll keep you appraised.
Copyright 2021, HorizonPost.com
