
The Neoliberal Looting of America - rapnie
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/opinion/private-equity-inequality.html
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pphysch
Any rebuttal from HNers on the merits of LBOs/private equity consolidation? I
personally can't see the national benefit of it over 50 years.

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SllX
Not going to defend private equity companies if only because I don’t care for
them, but the author is chasing the wrong story. When the government is
willing to bail you out when you make risky bets, then the government screws
up the way the market is supposed to work.

Capitalism is a system of profit _and_ loss, but if you don’t have to worry
about the losses, then the incentive to do your due diligence on risky bets is
also lost because you’re effectively playing with taxpayer money instead of
your own. The real story is that we bought into too big to fail and that was a
mistake.

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pphysch
The corrupt politicians must be held accountable for enabling this snowball of
financial deregulation and regulatory capture. Unfortunately, this is probably
>90% of Capitol Hill. Corporate lobbying quid-pro-quo culture (read:
corruption) is deeply entrenched.

If the recent KY primary is any indication, the corrupt authorities are going
to fight very hard to avoid that moment, and reform will not occur
bureaucratically.

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blackrock
Why should the corrupt politicians do anything? They would just harm
themselves.

The majority of them are benefiting handsomely from the stock market.

So it is in their best interest to keep the status quo, and keep the game
going.

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mauflows
Not an expert, but have experienced some pretty bad government services. I
like the public market for private entities + gov entitlement route over
public option. Seems like entitlements make it harder for a hostile
administration to divest.

Plus soak the rich that neoliberalism helped create. Article didn't address
this, but tenants of neoliberalism like free trade are helpful for peaceful
negotiations among countries and global cooperation

