The Ultimate Parasites: "Private Equity Firms"

[Sardonica]

Source (http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/229382)
Another example of post-capitalist maggots fattening themselves from the dregs of modern liberal society:

The rich get their own nationality

Jun 26, 2007

Richard Gwyn

Until a few weeks ago, Stephen Schwarzman was unknown except to his own family and to those people who worked for him or with him.

Now he's world-famous and burdened by the fact that while a lot of people admire him and envy him, a lot of people also hate him.

The source of Schwarzman's fame is that he's become richer, faster than anyone in memory.

He runs a company called the Blackstone Group. It's a private equity firm (more about that in a moment). It's just made a public share offering, a most successful one, of which Schwarzman, as the principal shareholder is, naturally and properly, the principal beneficiary.

But a beneficiary on a scale without precedent. He's now worth just under $8 billion (U.S.). That's on top of last year's earnings of $398.3 million.

Besides those who wish they were him and those who now hate him, there is a one group of naysayers who are especially interesting.

According to the Financial Times of London, a lot of other top executives of private equity companies are enraged at Schwarzman because he's drawing attention to the fact that they, exactly like him, are sitting on gigantic golden eggs.

Apparently, these types are worried that the politicians, egged on by the mob, or the proletariat, or ordinary types like most readers of this column, will feel they need to "do something" about those like Schwarzman who make incredible fortunes by financial juggling while making not a single product nor providing a single new service to the public.

What private equity firms do, mostly, is buy companies and make them more efficient, then sell them at a profit. Mostly, the way they make these companies more efficient is by firing a lot of employees.

We are into a new era in which most of the rules that most people take for granted are regulating and governing society are largely irrelevant.

Call it the post-capitalism era. It's about capitalism all right. But it's capitalism disconnected from labour or from the factors of production (equipment, buildings), or from the nation-state in which the companies happen to be located.

It is, rather, capitalism functioning in a self-enclosed loop, feeding off itself, endlessly mutating and above all multiplying exponentially.

And because this capital is global, no one has a clue what it – private equity firms, hedge funds, and the new "sovereign wealth" funds set up by some nation-state governments (like China) to escape their own regulations – is doing.

Its principal effect is to make a small number of people, like Schwarzman, unbelievably, unimaginably, wealthy.

(Actually, its "principal effect" is to make a large number of people, like workers and the middle class, unbelievably, unimaginably exploited - working harder to end up with less and having to compete for what little they get with a bunch of immigrants - S)

Even the old wealthy types are dumbfounded. The retired chair of Goldman Sachs recently described the salaries of CEOs as "shocking" and "outrageous."

In the U.S. in 1985, there were 13 billionaires. Today, there are more than 1,000. Just in 2005, another 227,000 new American millionaires were minted.

In his book Richistan, Robert Frank calls this new class "financial foreigners." They may live in the U.S., or London or Hong Kong or Toronto, but they really live in their own space, with their own health system, own transportation system (private jets, limousines), even their own time system (watches that cost up to $600,000).

Except nominally, they aren't Americans or Brits or Chinese or Canadians. Their real nationality is that of "Richistan," because they are very, very, very, rich.

This is the real global warming that's taking place.

So. The rich "get their own nationality" while the rest of us are stuck living in nationalities overrun by unfettered immigration, social degeneration and economic policies designed to benefit only the the super-rich.

Nice "work" if you can get it.

[ivory bill]

If the names of those thieving billionaires were listed I'll wager this thread would as easily fit in the jewology forum as here.

[Sardonica]

If the names of those thieving billionaires were listed I'll wager this thread would as easily fit in the jewology forum as here.
I'm new here. I thought this WAS the jewology forum... :rofl:

[Kriger]

I'm new here. I thought this WAS the jewology forum... :rofl:

Jewology has certainly spread it's tentacles throughout the forum. To the extent that it would seem that the whole forum is dedicated to Jewology.

At any rate, the newly rich come from all sectors, and the rich have traditionally made their own communities and lifestyle. It's becoming major news these days that has resulted from such rub-in-your face tv programs such as "Lives of the Rich and the Famous". In short, the working masses are beginning to stir with feelings of major discontent and resentment. Rightfully so. After all, without us, who can attain status in the wealthy elite?

[Keystone]

If the names of those thieving billionaires were listed I'll wager this thread would as easily fit in the jewology forum as here.
I have no doubt.

We've been gutted like a fish, and these folk are feeding on the entrails. We have nothing to trade anymore except land and natural resources.

That reminds me of a bible story....

[il ragno]

Only one way out of this madness back to sanity...

http://www.annefrankguide.net/en-US/content/parade.jpg

[Sardonica]

At any rate, the newly rich come from all sectors, and the rich have traditionally made their own communities and lifestyle. It's becoming major news these days that has resulted from such rub-in-your face tv programs such as "Lives of the Rich and the Famous". In short, the working masses are beginning to stir with feelings of major discontent and resentment. Rightfully so.

I agree that not all of the parasites I was alluding to in my original post are necessarily Jewish. The editorial article I posted did, after all, also contain a reference to the current Chinese regime adopting similar parasitic economic practises, and they aren't Jewish as far as I know. My second post in this thread was off-the-cuff and meant as a joke.

The reason I started this thread was not for the purpose of slamming Jews or any other ethnic or religious group in particular, but to express disgust at the current economic system which allows certain individuals (or groups) to siphon obscene amounts of lucre into their own pockets at the expense of both the planet and of the rest of humanity - not by actually working hard or making a positive contribution to anything, but just through the fact of having been given access to (someone else's) money in the first place. In the meantime capitalist society and "democratic" governments turn a wilful blind eye, and this madness continues and becomes more entrenched.

I do hope (and suspect, based on prior historical examples) that the masses will eventually rise up and to put a stop to this particular kind of economic parasitism. The trouble is, such revolutions have historically ended up providing the foundation for systems that were even more corrupt than those they were originally rebelling against. Such as the current globalist/capitalist nightmare we are facing now.

Nazism and Communism are both examples of systems which had some great ideas theoretically, but so far in practise they have failed because of human weaknesses: egomania, greed and corruption. Not to mention lack of patience - trying to change society too drastically without consolidating their power first. Not just militarily, but socially, economically and environmentally. There's no such thing as "consolidated power" as long as you're dependent on non-renewable, environmentally destructive resources such as oil.

My personal view is that the National Socialist system (not "Nazism" and its connotations, before certain knee-jerkers ready their flamethrowers) has the greatest chance of eventually succeeding - if we can learn from the mistakes made in the previous attempt. If things keep getting worse the way they are now, I think enough minds will eventually open to the possibility.

[Thomas777]

Jewology has certainly spread it's tentacles throughout the forum. To the extent that it would seem that the whole forum is dedicated to Jewology.

At any rate, the newly rich come from all sectors, and the rich have traditionally made their own communities and lifestyle. It's becoming major news these days that has resulted from such rub-in-your face tv programs such as "Lives of the Rich and the Famous". In short, the working masses are beginning to stir with feelings of major discontent and resentment. Rightfully so. After all, without us, who can attain status in the wealthy elite?

The difference is that private equity firms don't produce anything, they don't create jobs, they don't cultivate development-oriented investment, and they don't increase available market capital.

When we consider the sort of power that finance capital has to shape productive processes and in turn, influence national policy, its pretty odious to liberty to think that many of FedGov's paymasters are in fact Oligarchs who have managed to morph public equity into private slush funds to be artificially and arbitrarily distributed according to their own insular preferences.

[Thomas777]

Decent commentary from the "Financial Times": http://www.ft.com/cms/s/de100996-2262-11dc-ac53-000b5df10621.html

The piece is little more than a primer, but it outlines some of the basic objections to private equity.

[Sulla the Dictator]

The difference is that private equity firms don't produce anything, they don't create jobs, they don't cultivate development-oriented investment, and they don't increase available market capital.


As if it matters. The same people bitching about these guys bitched about industrialists, using the same labels of 'parasites' and 'bloodsuckers'.

And by the way, no one puts $8 billion in a savings account.

[Thomas777]

As if it matters.
I think that off-the-radar equity is vaguely important, Sulla, when we are talking about real money. It tends towards undermining confidence in markets while propping up an illusion of production-side efficiency. The trend towards private equity is in some ways a market adaptation to Sarbanes-Oxley and preceeding legislative and regulatory trends...what will come of this tendency is as of yet not totally known, but you should not be so cavalier in your treatment of it.

The same people bitching about these guys bitched about industrialists, using the same labels of 'parasites' and 'bloodsuckers'.
Different people "bitched about industrialists"...usually, those who did were independent producers, local crony capitalists with an axe to grind, or old money people who lacked the capital to "buy in" and hence became irrelevant. Not analagous.


And by the way, no one puts $8 billion in a savings account.

Nobody kisses whores on the lips either, but niether of these things is really being discussed here.

[il ragno]

And by the way, no one puts $8 billion in a savings account.

You do if you really want the blender....

[Sardonica]

As if it matters. The same people bitching about these guys bitched about industrialists, using the same labels of 'parasites' and 'bloodsuckers'.

And by the way, no one puts $8 billion in a savings account.

I guess you didn't bother to actually read the article posted at the beginning of this thread.

Certainly neither you nor I can put $8 billion in a savings account, but whether it's in a savings account or suitcased in these parasites' rectums is irrelevant - the effect is the same. The point of the article, and what is disgusting about this situation, is that all these billions are doing nobody else any good except the greedy parasites which have amassed them.

Summed up nicely:
The difference is that private equity firms don't produce anything, they don't create jobs, they don't cultivate development-oriented investment, and they don't increase available market capital.

And you might want to consider the fact that all of this capital has to come from somewhere. Wealth does not materialize out of nowhere. If you're not sure where to look to see where it came from, you might want to check your own wallet first. Or look around you and see if you can find what's left of what used to be called "the middle class". Or look in a newspaper and see the latest articles about firms "downsizing" and people getting laid off, and wages going down because all those jobs are now in India. Farmers in the US and Canada are going bankrupt thanks to these leeches moving money all over the world cheaply ("globalization") to line their pockets, so you have to buy cheap but tainted food from places like China, whose government loves the private equity firm system and is setting it up there to line their own pockets.

So yeah, go ahead and continue to think there's nothing wrong with the system that allows private equity firms to exist. When you're the next one who gets laid off and has to settle for another job in your field at half the pay, or when your kid gets sick from antifreeze in their toothpaste, you might think again.

[barbarroja]

Rich people and jews have NO nationality.
If they have a problem, or must pay taxes -or go to jail; they quickly run to another country (in the jew case, to Israel... and then to UK, the real jew-mob paradise).

[ivory bill]

According to the Financial Times of London, a lot of other top executives of private equity companies are enraged at Schwarzman because he's drawing attention to the fact that they, exactly like him, are sitting on gigantic golden eggs.

This reminds me of what Kurt Vonnegut wrote about the "Money River":

Slurp as much as you want, but try to keep the racket of your slurping down. A poor man might hear.


When Kurt Vonnegut published God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, George W. Bush was almost halfway through his adolescence, which means that he had already spent 19 years lolling on the banks of the Money River. In this excerpt, millionaire Senator Rosewater is the first speaker. He is talking with his millionaire son and heir, Eliot:



“The what?”

“The Money River, where the wealth of the nation flows. We were born on the banks of it — and so were most of the mediocre people we grew up with, went to private schools with, sailed and played tennis with. We can slurp from that mighty river to our hearts’ content. And we even take slurping lessons, so we can slurp more efficiently.”

“Slurping lessons?”

“From lawyers! From tax consultants! From customers’ men! We’re born close enough to the river to drown ourselves and the next ten generations in wealth, simply using dippers and buckets. But we still hire the experts to teach us the use of aqueducts, dams, reservoirs, siphons, bucket brigades, and the Archimedes’ screw. And our teachers in turn become rich, and their children become buyers of lessons in slurping.”

“I wasn’t aware that I slurped.”

“Born slurpers never are. And they can’t imagine what the poor people are talking about when they say they hear somebody slurping. They don’t even know what it means when somebody mentions the Money River. When one of us claims that there is no such thing as the Money River I think to myself, ‘My gosh, but that’s a dishonest and tasteless thing to say.’” …

“It’s still possible for an American to make a fortune on his own.”

“Sure — provided somebody tells him when he’s young enough that there is a Money River, that there’s nothing fair about it, that he had damn well better forget about hard work and the merit system and honesty and all that crap, and get to where the river is. ‘Go where the rich and the powerful are,’ I’d tell him, ‘and learn their ways. They can be flattered and they can be scared.

“Please them enormously or scare them enormously, and one moonless night they will put their fingers to their lips, warning you not to make a sound. And they will lead you through the dark to the widest, deepest river of wealth ever known to man. You’ll be shown your place on the riverbank, and handed a bucket all your own. Slurp as much as you want, but try to keep the racket of your slurping down. A poor man might hear.’”

http://badattitudes.com/MT/archives/2006/09/on_the_banks_of.html

[omni]

And you might want to consider the fact that all of this capital has to come from somewhere. Wealth does not materialize out of nowhere. If you're not sure where to look to see where it came from, you might want to check your own wallet first. Or look around you and see if you can find what's left of what used to be called "the middle class". Or look in a newspaper and see the latest articles about firms "downsizing" and people getting laid off, and wages going down because all those jobs are now in India. Farmers in the US and Canada are going bankrupt thanks to these leeches moving money all over the world cheaply ("globalization") to line their pockets, so you have to buy cheap but tainted food from places like China, whose government loves the private equity firm system and is setting it up there to line their own pockets.

So yeah, go ahead and continue to think there's nothing wrong with the system that allows private equity firms to exist. When you're the next one who gets laid off and has to settle for another job in your field at half the pay, or when your kid gets sick from antifreeze in their toothpaste, you might think again.

This reminds me of what was being discussed in the "entropy strikes dying empire" thread after this (http://www.thecivicplatform.com/2007/06/24/hey-dude-wheres-my-vacation/) article was posted. Some "parasite" such as the one mentioned in the beginning of the article can cash in on $8 billion because you have salaried middle class workers working more hours than they are getting paid for, more people forced to work through what should be vacation times, and third world immigrants essentially doing slave labor (except they maybe get a few free hours on the weekend to crack open some Corona).

Unless something about this changes fairly soon, most of the planet will be left in shambles because a few thousand people were allowed to maintain an absurdly high standard of living at the expense of literally everyone else when the global economy is taken into consideration.


From: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/de100996-2262-11dc-ac53-000b5df10621.html
The widening gap between rich and poor, in particular, might be regarded as a fact of life. But in investment terms, it can be classed as a geopolitical risk. And investors, as I have remarked in this column before, are not good at handling that.

Indeed, globalisation and free markets might be regarded as unstoppable forces. But they are nothing of the kind. They have been stopped before and the process has generally been nasty.



Actually, at this point, the more complete the stop is and the nastier it is, the more hope we have for the future.

[Jimbo Gomez]

These people cause worldwide sorrow and poverty and are rewarded for it with more wealth than any man can reasonably spend in ten lifetimes. Wether you're a national socialist, some sort of red scum or somebody with common sense and decency, the outrage you feel about people like this is 100% justified.

If I were to read that some deranged lunatic stabbed somebody like this in the newspaper tomorrow, I'd probably toast to that lunatic's wellbeing.

[cyborg]

Wether you're a national socialist, some sort of red scum or somebody with common sense and decency, the outrage you feel about people like this is 100% justified.

The problem with these common sense and decency types is that they always hide in front of their televisions or in their churches because they are more afraid of their own personal mortality than their deteriorating society.

The common sense and decency types, displaying no sense and hiding cowardice behind decency platitudes, will only get involved after the rubble begins falling around them and the electricity shuts off.

[Keystone]

Only one way out of this madness back to sanity...

http://www.annefrankguide.net/en-US/content/parade.jpg



Perhaps something like that is the only way open to us now.

We've been sold a bill of goods and we'll soon choke on it.

[Kodos]

Private equity is a check on corrupt management which doesn't have any ownership stake in the company, if Boesky Malkin etc weren't jailed in the 80s you wouldn't see Home Depot give 50 million to a CEO who mismanaged the company as that would precipitate a corporate raid.

Sarbannes Oxley also makes it inevitable as the regulations are supposedly so costly to comply with that IT is much more profitable without being subject to the regs of a publicly traded company.

[Kodos]

These people cause worldwide sorrow and poverty and are rewarded for it with more wealth than any man can reasonably spend in ten lifetimes. Wether you're a national socialist, some sort of red scum or somebody with common sense and decency, the outrage you feel about people like this is 100% justified.

If I were to read that some deranged lunatic stabbed somebody like this in the newspaper tomorrow, I'd probably toast to that lunatic's wellbeing.

You don't need to worry, corrupt management hates private equity people...

They throw them out on their ass immediately after a takeover.

The elite eventually puts a stop to it (for better or worse) it happened in the late 80s.

[Kodos]

I think that off-the-radar equity is vaguely important, Sulla, when we are talking about real money. It tends towards undermining confidence in markets while propping up an illusion of production-side efficiency. The trend towards private equity is in some ways a market adaptation to Sarbanes-Oxley and preceeding legislative and regulatory trends...what will come of this tendency is as of yet not totally known, but you should not be so cavalier in your treatment of it.

As a long term trend its of course bad as it takes people out of the investor class, as a short term scare it will cause management in companies with disparate disinterested shareholders (or mostly mutual fund shareholders) to correct themselves and not run the company entirely for their own benefit.

Bet it won't cause those cocksuckers in Washington to repeal that horrendous Sarbannes Oxley act.

[Jimbo Gomez]

You don't need to worry, corrupt management hates private equity people...

They throw them out on their ass immediately after a takeover.

The elite eventually puts a stop to it (for better or worse) it happened in the late 80s.


Yeah, after a gazillion people lose their jobs. I don't care who the fuck is in charge of the company Weikel, all I care about is that the working man can do a decent job there for a decent wage, so he can feed his children and pay for a house. Fuck all else.

[raven]

I must say that I'm not a fan of government regulation of the economy in favour of socialism but at the same time, I absolutely despise it (even moreso) when the government gets into bed with big business. Government regulation is used to help the rich much more than they help the poor. A lot of people love to bash capitalism and free markets on here but newsflash: what we have now is not a free market. Far from it. What we have is corporatist neoliberalism/globalism right now. The government regulates so much in favour of big business and this is largely why a lot of workers are getting laid off and having to live off shit pay. Government control is largely the reason why we are in the mess that we are in now.

[Keystone]

I must say that I'm not a fan of government regulation of the economy in favour of socialism but at the same time, I absolutely despise it (even moreso) when the government gets into bed with big business. Government regulation is used to help the rich much more than they help the poor. A lot of people love to bash capitalism and free markets on here but newsflash: what we have now is not a free market. Far from it. What we have is corporatist neoliberalism/globalism right now. The government regulates so much in favour of big business and this is largely why a lot of workers are getting laid off and having to live off shit pay. Government control is largely the reason why we are in the mess that we are in now.
Government always=the rich, sooner or later.

Americans have been lulled to sleep by faux-history and propaganda. We actually believe we are free when we aren't, which is probably the most pathetic of conditions

[raven]

Well yeah. Unfortunately I do believe that its inevitable that government will always be corrupt in the United States (everywhere else too) and in favour of the ruler parasite class rather than be defenders of liberty. Men of principle are made pariahs in politics. See the Ron Paul situation right now with the Republican Party for eg.

[barbarroja]

Well, Weber the famous XIX political scientist of Germany wrote a text "The Politics as profesion" in wich he describe the archetypes of the political man:
Germany, the burocrat, cold blood, discipline, "do without ask", rationalism, servilism, always at work and forms a caste.
USA, the politicians are local prominents barons, dealing and sharing the power with the local judge and local capitalist and controlling the whole life of the place. They are corrupts, only the friends can survive and develope, and the ethic is "big fish (political mainstream friend) eat little fish (common worker)". You must buy the political charges, or have a hidden master (and you are only his puppet) to arrive to the power.
The times never change. USA is the same as in the XIX century.

[Kodos]

Yeah, after a gazillion people lose their jobs. I don't care who the fuck is in charge of the company Weikel, all I care about is that the working man can do a decent job there for a decent wage, so he can feed his children and pay for a house. Fuck all else.

If incompetent and crooked management bankrupts the company then everyone loses their job...

And as for job losses, the job market here in the US is much much better then it was a year ago. The post 9/11 era had the worst job growth since the time of Herbert Hoover.

[EdwardSmith]

Private equity firms are not the only people that make an obscene amount
of money without providing products or services. There are also professional
stock traders, and people that run gambling casinos.

As bad as that is, what is truly sick is what the likely response will be.
The leftist socialists and politicians will probably use it as an other opportunity
to create and/or enlarge socialist programs (which feed more parasites),
rather than imposing a maximum income limit (which prevents parasitism).
Politicians and bureaucrats of all kinds like socialist programs because they
allow the government to track and control the people. The only difference
between socialism and unregulated capitalism is that, in socialism, there are
many small parasites, whereas in unregulated capitalism, there are a few
large parasites. Unregulated capitalism can be combined with socialist
programs so as to cause the problems of both systems simultaneously,
and that is currently happening to some extent in the United States.

[Kodos]

Private equity firms are not the only people that make an obscene amount
of money without providing products or services. There are also professional
stock traders, and people that run gambling casinos.

As bad as that is, what is truly sick is what the likely response will be.
The leftist socialists and politicians will probably use it as an other opportunity
to create and/or enlarge socialist programs (which feed more parasites),
rather than imposing a maximum income limit (which prevents parasitism).
Politicians and bureaucrats of all kinds like socialist programs because they
allow the government to track and control the people. The only difference
between socialism and unregulated capitalism is that, in socialism, there are
many small parasites, whereas in unregulated capitalism, there are a few
large parasites. Unregulated capitalism can be combined with socialist
programs so as to cause the problems of both systems simultaneously,
and that is currently happening to some extent in the United States.

The super rich often don't have "income"...

[Keystone]

If incompetent and crooked management bankrupts the company then everyone loses their job...

And as for job losses, the job market here in the US is much much better then it was a year ago. The post 9/11 era had the worst job growth since the time of Herbert Hoover.
We...don't....make...anything...anymore...

Does this not worry you?

[Kodos]

We...don't....make...anything...anymore...

Does this not worry you?

China's gain in relative strength is a potential threat, but they don't really have much interest in confronting us other then over oil...

[Keystone]

China's gain in relative strength is a potential threat, but they don't really have much interest in confronting us other then over oil...
I suppose we're operating on two different levels.

We can't even make our own clothing....because we are too greedy.....something is askew...

[il ragno]

Key, it's no longer the greed of the few. It's standardized now, and to a level where a working man practically starts out life now with a weekly/monthly nut he can't make. And God forbid he gets sick.

[Kodos]

I mainly object to labeling private equity guys the ultimate parasites...

Private equity guys make their money by getting rid of other parasites for a cut...

Its too bad a hostile takeover of the Mass. State Government can't be launched. The teachers unions and cops should all be thrown on their ass.

[Barjag]

The super rich often don't have "income"...Yes, this is true, and incidentally one reason those "money doesn't buy happiness" studies tend to be meaningless. (They tend to go by income rather than wealth.)

[Kodos]

Yes, this is true, and incidentally one reason those "money doesn't buy happiness" studies tend to be meaningless. (They tend to go by income rather than wealth.)

Oh they ussually have income too, they just don't have "income".

Often they also have lots of property assets and wealth, but no real "property" "assets" or "wealth".

Old money is best at it, though Al Capone almost had it figured out but they got him for tax evasion.

[Keystone]

I mainly object to labeling private equity guys the ultimate parasites...

Private equity guys make their money by getting rid of other parasites for a cut...
Parasites meaning working people who have no choice in the matter of our workforce being reduced to cubicle rats who can be chucked out at a moment's notice to look for the next meaningless clerical job.
Its too bad a hostile takeover of the Mass. State Government can't be launched. The teachers unions and cops should all be thrown on their ass.
Bring in private contracters by all means. School kids will be served the basic minimum requirement of calories at lunch determined by SchoolMealsCorp and textbooks will be shared by no less than two educational units per volume.
The private dicks replacing the cops will only respond to the most cost-effective calls: traffic-ticketing events and moonlighting for security.

[Kodos]

Bring in private contracters by all means. School kids will be served the basic minimum requirement of calories at lunch determined by SchoolMealsCorp and textbooks will be shared by no less than two educational units per volume.
The private dicks replacing the cops will only respond to the most cost-effective calls: traffic-ticketing events and moonlighting for security.

Other then harassing kids with booze thats prettymuch all the cops do now up here. Don't know about PA...

I avoided school food like the plague...

Now back to the topic at hand... The 1st parasites the private equity guys fire are the ussually crooked and incompetent upper management and the shareholders get paid.

Now its diffrent in penny type stocks... say biotechs which just have a new drug. In those cases the shareholders often get screwed because while the bid was above the stockprice the PE buyer ussually isn't paying nearly as much as the stock would probably be worth in a year... nor is the management a bueracrat parasite class yet.

[B-Pep]

This is your beloved capitalism for ya! When you base a society totally on the turning of a profit, you expect the scum on top to give a shit about you? There is this pathetic notion in America that you can win your just bread by doing nothing, voting and the like, but in reality if you want to change your world and status you have to fight for it! America is a land of slaves with white and blue collars who cannot see past the few material concessions the system lets them have. We need to replace the modern system with a new system, a system of the Aryan enlightenment!

If this doesn't piss people off to taking up arms, WHAT WILL?!

[Ahknaton]

If this doesn't piss people off to taking up arms, WHAT WILL?!
Just between you and me, I think we're going to have to implement "the UFO option".

[Kodos]

This is your beloved capitalism for ya! When you base a society totally on the turning of a profit, you expect the scum on top to give a shit about you? There is this pathetic notion in America that you can win your just bread by doing nothing, voting and the like, but in reality if you want to change your world and status you have to fight for it! America is a land of slaves with white and blue collars who cannot see past the few material concessions the system lets them have. We need to replace the modern system with a new system, a system of the Aryan enlightenment!

If this doesn't piss people off to taking up arms, WHAT WILL?!

This is not anywhere close to something that would make me take up arms.

Do you guys want to close down the stock market in total, should I be forced to earn 4 or 5% maximum return on my money...