Category Archives: Private equity

CalPERS Digs Its Ben Meng Defenestration Hole Deeper: Claims Knowledge of Abuse Months Ago; Notice for Emergency Closed Session Legally Invalid Unless CEO Frost’s Job Is on the Line

CalPERS is bizarrely unable to control its bad impulses.

CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng Resigns Following Our Exposing His False, Felonious Financial Disclosure Filings and Private Equity Conflicts of Interest

CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Ben Meng has left abruptly. If you’ve been paying attention, this isn’t a total surprise.

New Study Slams Public Pension Funds’ Alternative Investments as Drag on Performance, Identifies CalPERS as One of the Worst “Negative Alphas”; Shows Folly of CalPERS’ Desperate Plan to Increase Private Equity and Debt and Go Bigger Using Leverage

A new paper shows that public pension fund investment in “alts” like real estate and private equity hurt returns and failed to lower risk.

Beneficiary Uproar Over CalPERS Fraudulent Investment Strategy Claims in E-Mail Blast

CalPERS latest beneficiary e-mail had misrepresentaions that even the toothless SEC would sanction.

Private Equity and the Pandemic: Brace for Impact…Investing

Private equity wants investors to believe that it can do good. The damage it has done through its health care industry profiteering says otherwise.

Wall Street Journal’s Apologia for Private Equity Letting Companies Go Bust

The Wall Street Journal unwittingy defends private equity destructiveness.

SEC Issues Devastating Risk Alert on Private Equity Abuses; Effectively Admits Failure of Last 5+ Years of Enforcement

The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations says private equity conduct is really really bad.

LA Times’ Michael Hiltzik Shellacks CalPERS for Trumped-Up Attacks on Board Member Margaret Brown, Toadying to Staff Instead of Providing Oversight

Mike Hiltzik gives the CalPERS board yet another well-warranted dressing down.

CalPERS Plans to Blow Its Brains Out: Seeks to Increase Risk by Boosting Private Equity, Private Debt, and Leveraging the Entire Fund

CalPERS latches on to new, really bad investment ideas.

Private Equity Clearly Inferior to Public Equity: Delivers Similar Returns With Lower Liquidity

More evidence that private equity underperforms on a risk-adjusted basis.

Private Equity Gets New Pockets to Pick: Your 401(k), in Funds Repeatedly Cited by the SEC for Abuses

While the US was busy with coronavirus and George Floyd protests, private equity stormed the retail investor barricade.

Wall Street’s Useful Idiot: Financial Times Shills for CLOs….as Fed Hasn’t Bailed Them Out

A major story on the CLOs chooses not to address the key questions.

Public Pension Plans in a World of Hurt; Even Loyalists Warning of Grim Prospects

Not surprisingly, public pension fund economics look pretty sick.

Retail Bankruptcies, Bailouts Put Spotlight on Private Equity

Private equity turned a lot of retailers into tenants….and now landlords are a big impediment to the survival of many businesses.