Unfortunately, it appears this video is in promotion of a federal ruling prohibiting states from intervening in the market, as opposed to the solution of removing government authority completely from the market for dental care.
When I was a teenager, before I realized that government was evil, I worked for the Post Office sorting mail. Union "organizers" had won the legal right to stroll around in the work area "monitoring" conditions. I was told repeatedly by one of these organizers that I was sorting the mail too fast - that it made others look bad.
There really are people like this in the world. As a young adult I considered a career in surveying, so I subscribed to a trade journal of that field. The whole journal was devoted to the problem of how to prevent people from entering the field - to make sure there was a shortage of surveyors. It was all about the latest lobbying efforts to legislate tougher licensing standards, and being a journal of surveyors for surveyors, they were quite frank about there purpose: stop the competition. There was nothing about better surveying.
By then I had read Ayn Rand and I decided I would never pursue a career that required a license to work. I never have.
Private Equity Says “Nothing to See Here” on Secret Document Release, So Why Not See Them All?
First, the Pennsylvania Treasury took the documents down on Thursday, so that our websites (here and here) are now the best way to obtain them. Note that does not necessarily mean the the state Treasury was pressured to take them down. Media outlets were contacting them on Tuesday, so the agency knew of the issue then. It’s reasonable to assume that given that they had signed confidentiality agreements for each of these documents that they felt they needed to take them down to minimize exposure.
Some general partners have taken a fairly relaxed view of the recent leak of their limited partner agreements—which raises the point that what has been under lock and key for so long in this industry actually doesn’t need to be….
So now that the private equity firms now treat the disclosure of these formerly super-secret contracts with a collective shrug, we might as well take their new posture seriously.
I hope readers will join me in pushing for the passage in every state of legislation to authorize disclosure of private equity limited partnership agreements and side letters, with the proviso that the legislation does not become effective until it is passed in states that collectively represent at least 25% of all public pension fund commitments to private equity as measured by an authoritative source. After all, the industry hasn’t deigned to respond to the documents’ release, so clearly their is no issue of competitive harm or other justification for continued secrecy. But to make sure the badly captured public pension funds themselves don’t oppose this legislation, it also needs to neutralize the threat used by private equity to intimidate state agencies into siding with them against disclosure: that the general partners will refuse to invite the public pension funds into future deals. If enough industry dollars is at stake, the private equity industry’s past position will become politically and practically untenable.
So let’s see if private equity lives up to its new posture of indifference, or reverts to its former stance when journalists like those at Reuters who’ve been after limited partnership agreements for years come knocking at state pension fund doors asking for disclosure. No doubt, they’ll resume trying to snow judges with their patently false “trade secret” palaver.
Nothing to see here. Just government at work...
ReplyDeleteGood GOD! How anyone- leftist, neocon, fascist, whathefukever- can defend the government in a case like this makes me sick.
ReplyDeleteHow can anyone watch this short video and deny that our government is corrupt and evil?
ReplyDeleteSick.
Every government is corrupt and evil. Fixed that for you:)
Delete"Every government is corrupt and evil."
DeleteThis^^
Unfortunately, it appears this video is in promotion of a federal ruling prohibiting states from intervening in the market, as opposed to the solution of removing government authority completely from the market for dental care.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager, before I realized that government was evil, I worked for the Post Office sorting mail. Union "organizers" had won the legal right to stroll around in the work area "monitoring" conditions. I was told repeatedly by one of these organizers that I was sorting the mail too fast - that it made others look bad.
ReplyDeleteThere really are people like this in the world. As a young adult I considered a career in surveying, so I subscribed to a trade journal of that field. The whole journal was devoted to the problem of how to prevent people from entering the field - to make sure there was a shortage of surveyors. It was all about the latest lobbying efforts to legislate tougher licensing standards, and being a journal of surveyors for surveyors, they were quite frank about there purpose: stop the competition. There was nothing about better surveying.
By then I had read Ayn Rand and I decided I would never pursue a career that required a license to work. I never have.
Private Equity Says “Nothing to See Here” on Secret Document Release, So Why Not See Them All?
ReplyDeleteFirst, the Pennsylvania Treasury took the documents down on Thursday, so that our websites (here and here) are now the best way to obtain them. Note that does not necessarily mean the the state Treasury was pressured to take them down. Media outlets were contacting them on Tuesday, so the agency knew of the issue then. It’s reasonable to assume that given that they had signed confidentiality agreements for each of these documents that they felt they needed to take them down to minimize exposure.
Some general partners have taken a fairly relaxed view of the recent leak of their limited partner agreements—which raises the point that what has been under lock and key for so long in this industry actually doesn’t need to be….
So now that the private equity firms now treat the disclosure of these formerly super-secret contracts with a collective shrug, we might as well take their new posture seriously.
I hope readers will join me in pushing for the passage in every state of legislation to authorize disclosure of private equity limited partnership agreements and side letters, with the proviso that the legislation does not become effective until it is passed in states that collectively represent at least 25% of all public pension fund commitments to private equity as measured by an authoritative source. After all, the industry hasn’t deigned to respond to the documents’ release, so clearly their is no issue of competitive harm or other justification for continued secrecy. But to make sure the badly captured public pension funds themselves don’t oppose this legislation, it also needs to neutralize the threat used by private equity to intimidate state agencies into siding with them against disclosure: that the general partners will refuse to invite the public pension funds into future deals. If enough industry dollars is at stake, the private equity industry’s past position will become politically and practically untenable.
So let’s see if private equity lives up to its new posture of indifference, or reverts to its former stance when journalists like those at Reuters who’ve been after limited partnership agreements for years come knocking at state pension fund doors asking for disclosure. No doubt, they’ll resume trying to snow judges with their patently false “trade secret” palaver.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/05/private-equity-says-nothing-see-secret-document-release-see.html