Felix Salmon wonders: [B]idders for the banks’ toxic assets don’t care particularly about the idiosyncratic risks of any given loan portfolio or CDO. Instead, they’re worried overwhelmingly about systemic risks associated with the ongoing financial crisis.Essentially, we are not living in a world where investment prowess is repaid, and the fate of the private-sector participants […]
Private Equity
Posted inArticle
PRIVATE EQUITY AND YOU.
Great line from Romney. “I know what makes jobs come, and I know what makes them go.” Mitt Romney was CEO of a private equity firm. He ran Bain Capital. Mitt Romney makes jobs come, and more often, makes them go.
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PRIVATE AIR FORCE.
Blackwater is buying fixed-wing counter-insurgency aircraft: A subsidiary of U.S. military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide has purchased a fighter plane from the Brazilian aviation company Embraer, a Brazilian newspaper reported June 1. The 314-B1 Super Tucano propeller-driven fighter – the same used by the Brazilian military – was bought for $4.5 million and delivered to […]
Posted inSpecial Report
The Perils of Privatization
If adequate water for drinking and sanitation is essential for life, shouldn’t we consider water a human right? Not everyone thinks so. In February, the United Nations Human Rights Council missed a critical opportunity to recognize a human right to water. As a result of lobbying by the United States and Canada, the council derailed […]
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The Alarming Parallels Between 1929 and 2007
Has deregulation left the economy at risk of another 1929-scale crash? Should the Fed keep bailing out speculators? Robert Kuttner testified yesterday before the House Financial Services Committee.
Posted inFeatures
The Bubble Economy
The sub-prime mess, the huge risks taken by hedge funds, and the conflicts of interest that led to Enron are all the consequences of serial bouts of financial deregulation. Will we reverse field in time to prevent another 1929?
Posted inEconomic Policy
Equity Funds Hire Prominent Minorities to Protect Tax Break
That should have been the headline of a Wall Street Journal article on a new group sponsored in part by the Private Equity Council (an industry trade group for private equity funds), rather than “Minority Group Fights Carry Tax Increase.” Just to reorient folks after their summer vacations, the basic story here is that the […]
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The Perfect Economic Storm
The speculative binge in hedge funds, private equity, derivatives, and subprime mortgages is pushing the larger economy into a general downward spiral.
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Public V. Private
I meant to link to this Harold Meyerson column on the lax accountability measures applied to government contractors when it came out, but I didn’t. So I’ll do it now. The most telling bit comes at the end, when Harold points to legislation from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who wants to “create a central database that […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Private Equity Fund Managers’ Profits?
The Washington Post reported on the emergency mobilization of the nation’s leading lobbyists to thwart bills that would tax the compensation of equity and hedge fund managers at the same rates as the wages of school teachers and firefighters. Currently, these managers get to defer taxes on their compensation by rolling it back into the […]