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Private equity was always a catastrophically destructive grift. Just ask employees of the Olive Garden, Toys R Us or Sears. And PE's expansion into health care was terrible even before the pandemic. But man, has PE's toxic nature been revealed by the crisis.
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It's like we spent decades worrying about the coming storm, but assuring ourselves that at least the house had strong walls and a good roof and foundation - only to discover that termites had turned it all into lacework and then fucked off to a financial secrecy jurisdiction.
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PE, not the pandemic, killed Hertz.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/27/literal-gunhumping/#hertz-uranus
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/27/literal-gunhumping/#hertz-uranus
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PE is why hospitals are laying off ER doctors and nurses even as the ERs themselves are heaving with patients:
https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/21/profitable-butchers/#looted
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/21/profitable-butchers/#looted
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And PE is SWIMMING in cash, and firehosing it around, scooping up bargains during the pandemic, so they can destroy more businesses and make more plutes even richer when the health emergency is over.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/30/medtronic-stole-your-ventilator/#blackstone-kkr
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/30/medtronic-stole-your-ventilator/#blackstone-kkr
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PE is both incredibly, performatively dull, and also a really simple form of fraud. It's a con and it only works because it is performed in Financial High Elvish, so the people doing it sound really smart and make you feel stupid.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/04/a-mind-forever-voyaging/#prop-bets
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/04/a-mind-forever-voyaging/#prop-bets
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But once the boringness is punctured, it deflates, and leaves behind the contempt that PE deserves.
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Oh, look, it's @TheOnion.
"Protestors Criticized For Looting Businesses Without Forming Private Equity Firm First"
https://www.theonion.com/protestors-criticized-for-looting-businesses-without-fo-1843735351
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"Protestors Criticized For Looting Businesses Without Forming Private Equity Firm First"
https://www.theonion.com/protestors-criticized-for-looting-businesses-without-fo-1843735351
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“Look, we all have the right to protest, but that doesn’t mean you can just rush in and destroy any business without gathering a group of clandestine investors to purchase it at a severely reduced price and slowly bleed it to death."
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"It’s disgusting to put workers at risk by looting. You do it by chipping away at their health benefits and eventually laying them off. There’s a right way and wrong way to do this.:
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