This past week, even jaded observers of Wall Street were startled to learn that last year’s top hedge fund manager, James Simons of Renaissance Technologies, made $1.7 billion in 2006. Alpha Magazine reported that the top 25 hedge fund earners garnered an average of $570 million in 2006, up from $362 million in 2005. The […]
Private Equity
Posted inEconomic Policy
Debt: The Secret of Private Equity
Floyd Norris has a good piece for people like me who were wondering how so many public companies could suddenly become hugely profitable when they are taken private. The answer is debt. The private equity funds borrow to the hilt against the companies’ assets and then pay out huge “dividends” to themselves. This gives the […]
Posted inArticle
End of the Private New Deal
A ripple of economic anxiety passed through middle America this spring when a bankrupt United Airlines ditched its pension obligations and General Motors announced it would cut 25,000 jobs. That’s capitalism, you may say: Individual companies rise and fall, and America’s prosperity should never be equated with their fortunes. But United’s abandonment of its pensions […]
Posted inColumns
End of the Private New Deal
A ripple of economic anxiety passed through middle America this spring when a bankrupt United Airlines ditched its pension obligations and General Motors announced it would cut 25,000 jobs. That’s capitalism, you may say: Individual companies rise and fall, and America’s prosperity should never be equated with their fortunes. But United’s abandonment of its pensions […]
Posted inArticle
Private Eyes
When it comes to pensions, President Bush’s administration seems to practice a strange double standard: Private pensions are assumed to be superior to the current system simply because they are, well, private. And so the president has stuck adamantly to the line that the solution to Social Security’s perceived problems is privatization. But in reality, […]
Posted inArticle
Private Parts
On April 27, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments in a case known as Cheney v. USDC, which is often referred to as Vice President Dick Cheney’s attempt to assert executive privilege over the records of his 2001 National Energy Policy Development Group. Christopher H. Schroeder, acting Assistant Attorney General in Bill Clinton’s […]
