Roughly eight years ago, I had lunch with an ex-McKinsey colleague who had started a venture capital firm. His partners were raising a second fund. He was leaving. I wish I had taken notes, but his message was that the industry did not work.
Read more...By Michael Olenick, creator of NASTIACO, a crowd sourced foreclosure document review system (still in alpha). You can follow him on Twitter at @michael_olenick or read his blog, Seeing Through Data
There’s a strong argument that the competing goals of HERA, minimizing loss while promoting affordable housing, are impossible. But doing the opposite, increasing losses while discouraging affordable housing, is even harder, yet Fannie has done that.
Read more...By Nanea, a private equity insider
Last week, the New York Times reported on its successful effort to unseal evidence in a lawsuit alleging that the biggest private equity firms (so called “mega-buyout” shops) colluded to limit competition with one another during the Buyout Boom that preceded the financial crisis.
The story made me think about some of my own, non-business-related experiences with cooperative behavior among private equity rivals.
Read more...It’s troubling that some stinging charges against the very biggest names in private equity are getting only passing attention in the financial media.
Read more...Just because the banks are on one side of an issue does not always mean they are wrong, just that they might be right for the wrong reason.
Read more...By Nanea, a private equity insider
I thought I would make a brief digression into how private equity GP*s are able to use a web platform called IntraLinks as a vehicle to intellectually capture and, in a sense, hold prisoner their LP investors.
Read more...Yves here. Our next set of posts in our private equity series will provide background on how the industry operates
Read more...No matter how bad things get, it turns out they can always get worse. Wall Street is about to foist a new “innovation” on investors that even the ratings agencies won’t touch.
Read more...By Nanea, a private equity insider
I’ll be having much more to say later about the Bain documents posted on Gawker.
In the meantime, I would like to point out the utterly misleading nature of the statement issued by Bain Capital in response to the documents’ release.
Read more...As a public service, I’m pointing to an important post at Gawker on some Mitt Romney investments that he has until now managed to shield from scrutiny.
Read more...By Nanea, a private equity insider, and Yves Smith
Private equity practitioners, including most famously Mitt Romney, often depict their sector as the epitome of private enterprise. These claims are false. Private equity firms not only depend directly and substantially on government support, they have also actively cultivated links to the state.
Read more...We are in the midst of a sea change in terms of the relationship of ordinary Americans to the housing market. Policymakers are not only in denial as to its magnitude, but are actively enabling courses of action that are likely to prove destructive.
Read more...In the coming weeks, Naked Capitalism will publish an investigative series on the private equity industry that will include articles written by current industry participants with considerable experience.
Read more...Reader Hecht pointed out a new piece by Steven Davidoff at the New York Times’ Dealbook, illustrating the lengths to which the Fed will go to defend incumbent bank managements.
Read more...Adam Davidson is moving up in the world. He has gone from fellating the 1% to the top 0.1%.
Read more...