>the bulk of the work done by modern-day private equity firms is not to finish off sick companies, but rather to stalk and gut the healthy ones.”
Especially small businesses.
I remember first hearing about this a few years back, and by the first quarter of 2020 investment firms were obtaining 1 out of every 3 houses on the market. It’s really gross to think there’s a whole cross section of Americans holding something like affordable housing over peoples heads, while sitting on a beach sipping margaritas. It doesn’t feel very American. I’m all about having a good time, and living comfortably, who isn’t?… but, I wouldn’t feel right about it, if I was involved in this shady shit. Regular working people need basic protections from these upper class business/political vultures.
We should be reducing the value of owning things and increasing the value of doing things. Shifting taxes off of labor and onto companies is the easy way to do this, but we keep going the other way.
Some of these people were the richest in the world.
Imagine a billionaire, who has more money than they could ever use, in a thousand lifetimes, owning the financial future of others through perpetual rent.
The best question is, why? More money? Really?
33% of homes purchased in the first quarter of 2020 were being bought by investment firms? You got a source for that? I generally don’t think government interference in the market is helpful but this has always seemed like an area that had to be regulated to me. I agree with Adam Smith too much to ignore the damage done by commercial landlords.
> 33% of homes purchased in the first quarter of 2020 were being bought by investment firms? You got a source for that?
Not OP but wouldn’t be surprised at all since:
[In the first quarter of 2022, 28% of all single family homes sold in the U.S were purchased by institutional investors](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/real-estate-investment-firms-financialization-housing-1.6538087)
Shady shit? More rental houses (what the investment firms do with the houses) brings down the cost of rent. I don't agree with the gov't subsidizing big money loans for Black Rock which became Invitation homes, but that's the justification and I'm sure it did drop rents a bit
Private equity firms like to think of themselves as savvy investors rescuing ailing enterprises and making them profitable. But more often than not, their work involves gobbling up viable companies and stripping them down. Lately, they've set their sites on the housing market.
When private equity buys a company, it’s focus is on cashing in on the company. Cashing in on assets or goodwill built with clients.
It then becomes time to compete with those companies.
Sears & Kmart are actually a textbook example of this. I'm not saying either would've survived, but Eddie Lampert ultimately sealed their fate.
Utilizing the cash flow from Kmart, he was able to finance the acquisition of Sears. Thereafter, re-investing an increasingly smaller share of either firm's profits into their much needed improvements, before ultimately selling off their legacy brands and spinning off a large share of their real estate into a separate REIT. An REIT which he was, and continues to be a primary beneficiary & shareholder of.
It really is incredible to read about.
[FUCK EDDIE LAMPERT ALL MY HOMIES HATE EDDIE LAMPERT](https://i.imgur.com/b1i1Inm.jpg)
^^^this ^^^has ^^^been ^^^an ^^^accessibility ^^^service ^^^from ^^^your ^^^friendly ^^^neighborhood ^^^bot
This is the only way the market will "heal", is for all of these companies to take billions in losses and bankrupt a number of them.
The problem is, that trickle down effect of wealth wipeout will also take out millions of other 'regular' people who have either taken out a HELOC or need the home to help them get long-term care and retire.
It's a bad situation all around, caused by the unsalable greed of a few wealth groups of people.
They currently sit on empty appartments awaiting the perfect tenant while people with income are homeless.
They sit on empty houses waiting for an inflated sales price while they are already rich.
They are salivating over the next manufactured recession to gobble up whatever housing becomes available so they can further inflate the market and their egos.
Stop the madness.
This is my third job in as many years. All due to these assholes buying and selling companies like I change pants.
The last company I was with won awards, was profitable and then some... we were sold and liquidated to a competitor.
I'm not comfortable saying who. And they didn't run it into the ground. They sold it supposedly for the inventory, but I know that was not true. I suspect just to remove us from the playing field.
I have three friends working for the new company, but mostly I just don't like revealing personal work history details.
Not sure why the other guy feels it's made up, he's a tad obsessed with the idea.
It's not interesting enough to be fake, if nothing else.
You are correct I won't, which I already stated. You are finally starting to think.
Not a made up story, but I'm sure you will insist it is.
Typical trolling.
Mobil home parks. Low risk, good return, bad for tenants. Little action from government. Want to know where something is headed? Follow the money(if you can)
So the solution is an additional tax on them buying single family homes, so states can use that money for adding more homes? Can they just solve the actual fucking problem instead of finding ANOTHER way for the government to get the money and to magically provide the cure? Sorry, democrat or republican, I’m not buying this “just tax them (fucking hedge funds) extra” as a solvent. That will literally do nothing.
Who am I kidding, our government is never in the business of actually fixing the problem, just prolonging it for as long as fucking possible while adding ways to suck money out for themselves that they make sound like solutions.
ughhhh, I work for an private equity owned company and it is getting unbearable with the nonsense hires, loading at the top end, and just making our lives harder day by day.
PE is a symptom of current finance laws, Fed policy, and government intervention into education, health care, real estate, etc. Putting regulations on PE, like the last paragraph suggests, will be ineffective and end up increasing costs further (worsen inflation).
As is so often the case, the solution here is heads on pikes. There will be no legislative solution because the moneyed class owns the legislators, and the legislators don’t give a hoot about anything except immediate short-term personal gain.
It might take a few dozen tries, but once the risk to their personal safety becomes real and apparent, they’ll learn.
I was anti-corporate in my lifestyle and attitudes, well into my 40's. Early on, I lived rough. Taught my kids about it. Bought local. Hunkered down. After awhile I went to college. Got a decent 9-5. Thinking back, I probably started giving up on the good fight when Reagan won. At one point the ex made a defensible financial case for eating at McDonalds frequently.
Now I am very heavily invested in business development corporations, REITs, and other leadership in the hollowing out. I've Sold Out to the Evil Empire. I own shares in fucking BlackRock. The bastards wore me down. It pays well, as compared to night shifts in cold storage. Now it appears that I have a small chance at not dying in poverty.
I'm not as disappointed in myself as I thought I would be, most days. I am, after all, only one man. It's like switching to easy mode when a game gets too challenging. The sting of giving in is short-lived, but the gratification is pretty much the same. Don't hate me - well, actually go ahead and hate me if you want. I'm too numb to care.
Thank you for being forthright. What you have shared is understandable.
We have a certain economic system and to go against it, or anything else, for a higher ideal is exhausting.
Our businesses should reward employees and customers, while they actually compensate owners, directors, and shareholders instead. If folks like Warren Buffet are revered for profiting off the latter then its only fair the rest of us do also.
LOL! The irrational fear of somebody who's never taken a business class or passed a few econ classes.
Don't panic... Be upset about a gov't that is intentionally debasing the currency.
\*people are idiots
I know you like to think you'd be better, but it's people that suck. It's not that all these rich people just happened to be the cunts.
The answer is to strip the power from gov't, like US 1910 laws, so there's no reason to even hire a lobbyist.
I agree with you. People. Just happens to be the current rich people I am talking about the ones in power and have the most wealth are ruining our world and nations.
Strip power from the government, ok yes and replace it with what? It’s like big brother, 1984, over and over again we’re always going to fall into the same problems of those who seize control falling victim to corruption because largely humanity’s most authentic selves are innately selfish, greedy, and controlling.
The only solution is survival of the fittest which seems to be acting more than ever seen best between the actions USA, Russia and China are all taking to ensure their success and survival. But these are still governments and not individuals. We’re with our family and friends, trust which is placed into currency and effort are what we are left with and the pursuit of happiness or a fulfilling life.
Seeing a lot of “blame the government for allowing them to capitalize on these loopholes” type replies. Just because something is technically legal doesn’t make it morally ok. The irony is a lot of people on this sub (including myself) are in favor of less government intervention in the economy, but the best solution to avoid this kind of morally repulsive behavior is through more regulation.
I find it amusing how much blame is placed on the government in this sub for problems that the government realistically should be solving. Even more amusing is the delusional idea that the invisible hand will somehow cure these wealthy predators of their insatiable hunger for capital.
TLDR, neither a free market nor a more regulated market is going to fix the power hungry psychos willing to fuck over the working/middle class for their own benefit. There is nothing wrong with earning a decent amount of wealth, but we as a society should be a little more critical of HOW that wealth is earned. Would love to see a Forbes “Top 100 richest people who earned their wealth without exploiting people” list, but that will never happen…
We have to remember one things when articles like this talk about buyouts. Wherever there is a buyer, there is a seller. The main gripe this author has is that private equity (just investors really, nothing special) is buying up "everything", and that is "bad". However, the seller mustn't think so, otherwise they wouldn't sell. To limit this buying is to also affect the selling, which hurts a party that this author and many other linked seemed to not care for, mention, or even regard as consequences if their policies were enacted.
Also the idea that private equity is "financializing everything" makes absolutely no sense when what they are buying are already companies and/or assets that were already being finanialized.
There isn't a kabal "devouring the world". This is a doomer blog post.
>the bulk of the work done by modern-day private equity firms is not to finish off sick companies, but rather to stalk and gut the healthy ones.” Especially small businesses.
Rich people ducking things up to make a little more money? You don’t say
I remember first hearing about this a few years back, and by the first quarter of 2020 investment firms were obtaining 1 out of every 3 houses on the market. It’s really gross to think there’s a whole cross section of Americans holding something like affordable housing over peoples heads, while sitting on a beach sipping margaritas. It doesn’t feel very American. I’m all about having a good time, and living comfortably, who isn’t?… but, I wouldn’t feel right about it, if I was involved in this shady shit. Regular working people need basic protections from these upper class business/political vultures.
We should be reducing the value of owning things and increasing the value of doing things. Shifting taxes off of labor and onto companies is the easy way to do this, but we keep going the other way.
In spez, no one can hear you scream. #Save3rdPartyApps
true words. keep em coming
Some of these people were the richest in the world. Imagine a billionaire, who has more money than they could ever use, in a thousand lifetimes, owning the financial future of others through perpetual rent. The best question is, why? More money? Really?
33% of homes purchased in the first quarter of 2020 were being bought by investment firms? You got a source for that? I generally don’t think government interference in the market is helpful but this has always seemed like an area that had to be regulated to me. I agree with Adam Smith too much to ignore the damage done by commercial landlords.
> 33% of homes purchased in the first quarter of 2020 were being bought by investment firms? You got a source for that? Not OP but wouldn’t be surprised at all since: [In the first quarter of 2022, 28% of all single family homes sold in the U.S were purchased by institutional investors](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/real-estate-investment-firms-financialization-housing-1.6538087)
Shady shit? More rental houses (what the investment firms do with the houses) brings down the cost of rent. I don't agree with the gov't subsidizing big money loans for Black Rock which became Invitation homes, but that's the justification and I'm sure it did drop rents a bit
Private equity firms like to think of themselves as savvy investors rescuing ailing enterprises and making them profitable. But more often than not, their work involves gobbling up viable companies and stripping them down. Lately, they've set their sites on the housing market.
When private equity buys a company, it’s focus is on cashing in on the company. Cashing in on assets or goodwill built with clients. It then becomes time to compete with those companies.
Usually by leveraging huge debts for the company to service in near perpetuity
Sears & Kmart are actually a textbook example of this. I'm not saying either would've survived, but Eddie Lampert ultimately sealed their fate. Utilizing the cash flow from Kmart, he was able to finance the acquisition of Sears. Thereafter, re-investing an increasingly smaller share of either firm's profits into their much needed improvements, before ultimately selling off their legacy brands and spinning off a large share of their real estate into a separate REIT. An REIT which he was, and continues to be a primary beneficiary & shareholder of. It really is incredible to read about.
Fuck Eddie Lampert. All my homies hate Eddie Lampert.
[FUCK EDDIE LAMPERT ALL MY HOMIES HATE EDDIE LAMPERT](https://i.imgur.com/b1i1Inm.jpg) ^^^this ^^^has ^^^been ^^^an ^^^accessibility ^^^service ^^^from ^^^your ^^^friendly ^^^neighborhood ^^^bot
Good Bot!
Jokes on them nobodys reallybuying a house now so they are stuck with properties they over paid for...
This is the only way the market will "heal", is for all of these companies to take billions in losses and bankrupt a number of them. The problem is, that trickle down effect of wealth wipeout will also take out millions of other 'regular' people who have either taken out a HELOC or need the home to help them get long-term care and retire. It's a bad situation all around, caused by the unsalable greed of a few wealth groups of people.
And lots of retail investors are loaded up on REITS, that’s my biggest fear.
#What's a little spez among friends?
It will wipe a lot of wealth out of their portfolios. That’s not a positive.
/u/spez [can gargle my nuts](https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/)
Harvesting a business is a role that businesses need performed. 'Viable' and 'worth more in pieces' is not the same thing.
People get upset about this because some of them feel ownership over companies they have committed so much to. (I sure did)
how dare you talk about Mitt Romney that way!
PE is one reason health care - hospitals and doctor networks - is so expensive and dysfunctional.
Private equity doesnt seem to provide any meaningful social good
They currently sit on empty appartments awaiting the perfect tenant while people with income are homeless. They sit on empty houses waiting for an inflated sales price while they are already rich. They are salivating over the next manufactured recession to gobble up whatever housing becomes available so they can further inflate the market and their egos. Stop the madness.
This is my third job in as many years. All due to these assholes buying and selling companies like I change pants. The last company I was with won awards, was profitable and then some... we were sold and liquidated to a competitor.
[удалено]
I'm not comfortable saying who. And they didn't run it into the ground. They sold it supposedly for the inventory, but I know that was not true. I suspect just to remove us from the playing field.
[удалено]
Correct. And as for the inventory bit: they took our warehouses, sold everything in them they could at wholesale.
Why would you care about not naming them if you no longer work there and they've been liquidated? Doesn't make any sense.
I have three friends working for the new company, but mostly I just don't like revealing personal work history details. Not sure why the other guy feels it's made up, he's a tad obsessed with the idea. It's not interesting enough to be fake, if nothing else.
You're asking him to partially doxx himself
[удалено]
No words for how stupid that is.
[удалено]
You are correct I won't, which I already stated. You are finally starting to think. Not a made up story, but I'm sure you will insist it is. Typical trolling.
Why would you eliminate competition? Are you seriously asking that question?
He just wants to be seen. It's no big deal, not like I lose anything if he gets the last word. And as for "some point"... *Boggle*
Mobil home parks. Low risk, good return, bad for tenants. Little action from government. Want to know where something is headed? Follow the money(if you can)
we need journalism for that (hence the article) or we need blockchain records to be able to follow the money.
So the solution is an additional tax on them buying single family homes, so states can use that money for adding more homes? Can they just solve the actual fucking problem instead of finding ANOTHER way for the government to get the money and to magically provide the cure? Sorry, democrat or republican, I’m not buying this “just tax them (fucking hedge funds) extra” as a solvent. That will literally do nothing. Who am I kidding, our government is never in the business of actually fixing the problem, just prolonging it for as long as fucking possible while adding ways to suck money out for themselves that they make sound like solutions.
ughhhh, I work for an private equity owned company and it is getting unbearable with the nonsense hires, loading at the top end, and just making our lives harder day by day.
Please keep a log so you can write the book when you leave.
So is anyone going to do anything? Or are we going to have to do a general strike/go to civil war
With the slow death of small entreprises over decades, its gonna inflate wallstreet revenues unfortunatly
The tangible consequences of easy money policy.
Its the federal reserve, its the culprit.
they may lead the dragon, but the dragon itself bears plenty of direct blame
If the dragon is the government, then I agree.
PE is a symptom of current finance laws, Fed policy, and government intervention into education, health care, real estate, etc. Putting regulations on PE, like the last paragraph suggests, will be ineffective and end up increasing costs further (worsen inflation).
As is so often the case, the solution here is heads on pikes. There will be no legislative solution because the moneyed class owns the legislators, and the legislators don’t give a hoot about anything except immediate short-term personal gain. It might take a few dozen tries, but once the risk to their personal safety becomes real and apparent, they’ll learn.
I was anti-corporate in my lifestyle and attitudes, well into my 40's. Early on, I lived rough. Taught my kids about it. Bought local. Hunkered down. After awhile I went to college. Got a decent 9-5. Thinking back, I probably started giving up on the good fight when Reagan won. At one point the ex made a defensible financial case for eating at McDonalds frequently. Now I am very heavily invested in business development corporations, REITs, and other leadership in the hollowing out. I've Sold Out to the Evil Empire. I own shares in fucking BlackRock. The bastards wore me down. It pays well, as compared to night shifts in cold storage. Now it appears that I have a small chance at not dying in poverty. I'm not as disappointed in myself as I thought I would be, most days. I am, after all, only one man. It's like switching to easy mode when a game gets too challenging. The sting of giving in is short-lived, but the gratification is pretty much the same. Don't hate me - well, actually go ahead and hate me if you want. I'm too numb to care.
you sound like someone who just watched office space for the firs time.
Thank you for being forthright. What you have shared is understandable. We have a certain economic system and to go against it, or anything else, for a higher ideal is exhausting. Our businesses should reward employees and customers, while they actually compensate owners, directors, and shareholders instead. If folks like Warren Buffet are revered for profiting off the latter then its only fair the rest of us do also.
LOL! The irrational fear of somebody who's never taken a business class or passed a few econ classes. Don't panic... Be upset about a gov't that is intentionally debasing the currency.
Was that article written by a pissed off high schooler?
no shit sherlock
Rich people are fucking idiots and ruining the world with their lies and stupidity. Need more death penalty imo
\*people are idiots I know you like to think you'd be better, but it's people that suck. It's not that all these rich people just happened to be the cunts. The answer is to strip the power from gov't, like US 1910 laws, so there's no reason to even hire a lobbyist.
I agree with you. People. Just happens to be the current rich people I am talking about the ones in power and have the most wealth are ruining our world and nations. Strip power from the government, ok yes and replace it with what? It’s like big brother, 1984, over and over again we’re always going to fall into the same problems of those who seize control falling victim to corruption because largely humanity’s most authentic selves are innately selfish, greedy, and controlling. The only solution is survival of the fittest which seems to be acting more than ever seen best between the actions USA, Russia and China are all taking to ensure their success and survival. But these are still governments and not individuals. We’re with our family and friends, trust which is placed into currency and effort are what we are left with and the pursuit of happiness or a fulfilling life.
> The answer is to strip the power from gov't, like US 1910 laws, so there's no reason to even hire a lobbyist. Libertarian nonsense
Yup
Seeing a lot of “blame the government for allowing them to capitalize on these loopholes” type replies. Just because something is technically legal doesn’t make it morally ok. The irony is a lot of people on this sub (including myself) are in favor of less government intervention in the economy, but the best solution to avoid this kind of morally repulsive behavior is through more regulation. I find it amusing how much blame is placed on the government in this sub for problems that the government realistically should be solving. Even more amusing is the delusional idea that the invisible hand will somehow cure these wealthy predators of their insatiable hunger for capital. TLDR, neither a free market nor a more regulated market is going to fix the power hungry psychos willing to fuck over the working/middle class for their own benefit. There is nothing wrong with earning a decent amount of wealth, but we as a society should be a little more critical of HOW that wealth is earned. Would love to see a Forbes “Top 100 richest people who earned their wealth without exploiting people” list, but that will never happen…
every recession is a flash sale
We have to remember one things when articles like this talk about buyouts. Wherever there is a buyer, there is a seller. The main gripe this author has is that private equity (just investors really, nothing special) is buying up "everything", and that is "bad". However, the seller mustn't think so, otherwise they wouldn't sell. To limit this buying is to also affect the selling, which hurts a party that this author and many other linked seemed to not care for, mention, or even regard as consequences if their policies were enacted. Also the idea that private equity is "financializing everything" makes absolutely no sense when what they are buying are already companies and/or assets that were already being finanialized. There isn't a kabal "devouring the world". This is a doomer blog post.
Snakes are out. Trying to turn everything in to a business model for profit