Comments on: Private Equity: "Nothing More than a Clumsy Trick"

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:20:00 +0000

I agree with this and think people should link to Senate and google!!

We have many people pissed or at least concerned people here. IMHO, if everyone started to search for Dodd or go to these Senate web sites, these senators would eventually get the message that web traffic is going up because of this. You can vote with web traffic and make some difference! If these crooks know that millions of people are watching and waiting, they will be less likely to take the lobby money and to be more accountable...that is my prayer!

I just went to Google and type in:

United States Senate Committee on Banking

Google came up with 1,730,000 results on that "phrase"/ query

However, if you type in: banking.senate

The results are just 8,520

Next search phrase >>>>>>>>>>>>>
_________________

Senate Finance Committee = 924,000 results

senate.gov/~finance = 716

Next Search:

obama = 84,800,000 results

68,200,000 for hillary

The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has jurisdiction over matters related to: banks and banking, price controls, deposit insurance, export promotion and controls, federal monetary policy, financial aid to commerce and industry, issuance of redemption of notes, currency and coinage, public and private housing, urban development and mass transit, and government contracts.

Members, 110th Congress

The Committee is chaired by Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut), and the Ranking Minority member is Richard Shelby (R-Alabama).

By: Mebane Faber

Mebane Faber — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:32:00 +0000

Private equity is all about the top quartile of funds. They crush the performance of the bottom 75%. If you look at who is best at investing in these funds, it tends to be the endowments with returns 14% higher than the average participant.

Check out these papers:

"Secrets of the Academy: The Drivers of University Endowment Success"

"The Troves of Academe"

By: john c. halasz

john c. halasz — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:49:00 +0000

You might also want to look up Ackerlof’s paper on corporate looting/bankruptcy for profit from the early ’90’s.

By: S

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:09:00 +0000

PE is yet another manifestation of Credit bubble. Look no further than the PEs diversifying their business models.

By: Richard Kline

Richard Kline — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:04:00 +0000

I have _never_ understood why it is even legal for an acquirer to borrow money to buy a publicly quoted company and then leave that company with the acquirer’s debt. This is simply asset striping by another namer, except the ‘asset’ in question is future profit. No one gets anything from the steal except the stealers, so why do we keep letting them play the same game?

(Self: “Am I really arguing this? I mean, I don’t even _like_ corporations . . . .”)

By: E. Cartman

E. Cartman — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:29:00 +0000

I think this article goes too far. Private equity was always tax arbitrage first and foremost. That was always pretty well understood, or so I thought …

Also, private equity can afford a much longer time horizon than the QoQ basis upon which many public companies operate …

Sure there are abusers who depreciate long-term assets to shore up a balance sheet just long enough to spin the company off, but there are significant advantages as well.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:22:00 +0000

So, where’s the link to the Citi report?

By: Molly

Molly — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:33:00 +0000

Sounds like that Citi research report is one that ought to be trotted out at regular intervals.

By: a

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:54:00 +0000

I think private equity is best compared to the buy-and-flip strategy of home flippers. So long as the market goes up, they both make money. It’s when the market stalls or goes down that one sees it’s all a mirage.