By SETON MOTLEY at LessGovernment.com
Credit where it’s due.
Back in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, then-Texas Governor Rick Perry correctly, qualitatively encapsulated the hallmark “achievement” of eventual nominee Mitt Romney’s private sector career.
Romney co-founded private equity firm Bain Capital – aka a hedge fund. Which Perry rightly described as – “Vulture Capitalism”:
“‘There’s a real difference between venture capitalism and vulture capitalism,’ Perry told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity Tuesday night. ‘Venture capitalism we like. Vulture capitalism, no.’…
“Perry cited two companies in Gaffney and Georgetown, S.C., that he said had lost jobs while the venture capital firm took in millions of dollars.
“He accused Romney and Bain of ‘picking their bones clean’ rather than working to ‘clean up those companies, save those jobs.’”
Going back further, we have this exchange from Oliver Stone’s 1987 hedge fund flick “Wall Street”:
Bud Fox: “Why do you need to wreck this company?”
Gordon Gekko: “Because it’s wreck-able, alright?”…
Bud Fox: “If these people lose their jobs – they’ve got nowhere else to go.”…
Gordon Gekko: “It’s all about bucks, Kid.”
Unfortunately, it is “all about the bucks.” But it shouldn’t be.
If only America had listened – at any point along the way.
But it did not.
So instead, today, we have hedge funds and other billionaires carving up the country – and the planet. Amongst themselves – for themselves.
Big Companies Are Starting to Swallow the World
Private Equity Is Gutting America – and Getting Away With It
Of course they are getting away with it. Because they are aided and abetted – by uber-crony Big Government and its uber-crony, pro-Big Business policies.
To wit:
We’ve much discussed how Big Gov in 2010 handed the banking sector to the Big Banks – via the exceedingly corrupt Dodd-Frank law:
“Did Dodd-Frank fix ‘too big to fail?’ Of course not – this is DC, after all:
“‘Five Years After Dodd-Frank, Worry of ‘Too Big to Fail’ Still Persists’
“What it created – is what massive government always creates: ‘too small to survive.’
“Only big things can absorb the blows from government’s sledgehammers. Only big things are able to navigate their way through government’s regulatory mazes.
“It’s the little ones that get pulverized and lost.”
The Big Banks have spent the subsequent decade-plus swallowing up many thousands of smaller banks – picking the bank sector’s carcass clean.
To the point where we now get Big Media idiocies like this….
‘Too Big to Fail’ – to ‘We Only Need 3 or 4 Banks’ – in 13 Years:
“Last week, CNBC had a Big Investor guest. Nigh all of CNBC’s guests are Big Investors – or execs of the Big Businesses in which they invest.
“(To whom CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin) said something along the lines of:
“’We probably don’t need regional banks anymore. We could probably do well with just 3 or 4 Big Banks.’”
Let us review some additional examples of Big Gov-aided Big Biz cleaning the bones of what’s left of America’s once-free market sectors.
Can’t afford to buy a house? Or rent a house? Or an apartment? Or in any way move out of your parents’ basement?
Big Gov sets us up….
Property Tax Anger is Growing Across America
How Lower-Income Americans Get Cheated on Property Taxes
Money Printing Must Create Inflation
The Fed Delivers Biggest Rate Hike in Decades to Fight Inflation
And Big Biz knocks us down….
Wall Street Ownership Is Why Housing Is Out Of Reach
What Happens When Wall Street Buys Most of the Homes on Your Block?
A $60 Billion Housing Grab by Wall Street:
“Hundreds of thousands of single-family homes are now in the hands of giant companies – squeezing renters for revenue and putting the American dream even further out of reach.”
“Institutional investors may control 40% of U.S. single-family rental homes by 2030, according to MetLife Investment Management.”
Want to start a small business? Or hire a small business? Or be hired by a small business? Or do business with a small business? Yeah – not so much….
Private Equity Buying Up Small Businesses
Call this – The Romney-Gekko Effect….
When Private-Equity Firms Bankrupt Their Own Companies:
“(C)ompanies bought by private-equity firms are 10 times as likely to go bankrupt as those that aren’t.”
“In the last five years, private equity acquisition of franchises has doubled and tripled each year – year over year…. They’re buying up large swaths of industries – and regions.
And how’s this for a hedge fund con?:
“(The hedge fund) pays for the name, image and likeness of the former owners as a part of the deal.
“And when you go to any of the websites for all of these…companies? They all still say they are small businesses – locally owned and operated.
“(They say) things like ‘We serve our community – because we’re a part of our community.’”
The hedge funds buy ALL the local companies in one sector in one area – and then fix prices:
“They have unified software across all (the websites). No matter who you call for a quote…?” You’re talking to the same hedge fund. That then fixes the prices – after jacking them WAY up.
Want to own land? Or grow food? Or buy food? Or eat food? Good luck with that….
The Controversy Over Bill Gates Becoming the Largest Private Farmland Owner in the US:
“People are drawing connections between Gates’s vast farmlands and climate change advocacy.”
Ummm…yeah. It’s always good news when someone like Gates is buying up so much farm land….
Compilation of Bill Gates Talking About Depopulation
Let Them Eat Bugs – Bill Gates
A LOT of Globalist billionaires – share Gates’ population views….
Billionaires Try to Shrink World’s Population
And Gates’ penchant for purchasing vast tracts of land….
Why Are Billionaires Buying Farmland?
America’s Big Business Billionaires Are Buying Up LOTS of Land
Because they want to depopulate the world.
And then have a stranglehold on the food supply – for the people they graciously allow to stick around.
All of this, and more, makes up the Big Gov-Big Biz Cartel global dystopia – to which we have to look forward.
Which leads to perfectly rational and reasonable assessments – like this kid in this video (NSFW).
He’s a 20-something – with nothing good at all to which to look forward.
Remember Danish politician Ida Auke – and his 2016 bit of Globalist idiocy?:
“You’ll own nothing – and be happy.”
The kid in the video doesn’t seem very happy.
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