Category Archives: Investment management

Landmark Kentucky Pension Case Against KKR, Blackstone, and PAAMCO to Move to Trial?

An update on an important pension fund fiduciary duty case.

Why Elizabeth Warren’s Accountable Capitalism Act Will Be Good for Shareholders

Why shareholders are getting a raw deal out of the misguided corporate fixation on “maximizing shareholder value,” and Elizabeth Warren’s new bill is therefore good for them.

CalPERS to End Direct Investments and Separately Managed Accounts, Limit Co-Investment as CIO Whinges About Difficulty of Putting Money to Work

CalPERS is about to take another great leap backwards in private equity.

Asset Prices and Wealth Inequality

How asset prices have driven the evolution of US wealth inequality over the last 70 years.

Oxford Professor Phalippou: Since 2006, Private Equity Has Produced Only S&P 500 Returns While Reaping $400+ Billion in Fees

Oxford professor Ludovic Phalippou gives a decisive debunking of the claim that private equity outperforms.

How Hedge Fund Activists Coopted “Shareholder Democracy”

How hedge fund activists, who largely operate as a type of corporate raider, have subverted the notion of “shareholder democracy” and what can be done to rein them in.

CalPERS Loses Over $500 Million on Botched Timber Investment; May Have Sold at Bottom of Market

CalPERS wrongfoots another big alternative assets investment, this one in timber.

Wolf Richter: Tesla Discloses Worst Quarterly Loss Ever, But Where Are the 17,000 Model 3 Cars it “Produced” But Didn’t “Deliver”?

So far, the SEC and investors are ignoring Tesla’s sus-looking production figures.

Why Is CalSTRS Continuing to Out-Perform CalPERS?

Not surprisingly, CalPERS’ performance leaves much to be desired.

Michael Olenick: Update Confirms That Share Buybacks Are Still Corporate Suicide

Reconfirming the findings of a study that debunked some key claims about the supposed benefit of stock buybacks.

Richard Murphy: Stock Markets Look Ever More Like Ponzi Schemes

Why is it entirely sensible to regard stock markets as Ponzi schemes.

Some Public Pension Funds Give KKR a Wet Noodle Lashing Over Toys ‘R’ Us Collapse

Not surprisingly, action in the wake of private equity investors Bain, KKR and Vornado stiffing Toys ‘R’ Us workers of their severance have generated more press than restitution. But some of the ideas bruited about would have real teeth.

Will Investors Like CalPERS Fall for Private Equity’s Long-Lived Fund Con?

Beware of the private equity “innovation,” the long-lived or “permanent capital” fund. It is virtually guaranteed to short change investors on returns needed to compensate for the longer holding period.

Finally: SEC Frets about Share Buybacks, “Torrent of Corporate Trading Dominating the Market” and “Short-Term Financial Engineering”

Mirabile dictu, a Republican SEC commissioner criticizes stock buybacks….

CalPERS CIO Ted Eliopoulos Tells 5 Big Lies in Presenting Super Indirect Private Equity Scheme

CalPERS’ Chief Investment Officer Ted Eliopoulos seemed unable to offer a truthful, coherent rationale for two new private equity schemes he unveiled last Friday. CalPERS beneficiaries and California taxpayers should be worried.