"The CEO cult returns
.... Calling attention to flaws in the economy, while serving as a tough watchdog on Wall Street, is the higher calling for the business media. The failure to prevent the catastrophic collapse of the credit market can’t be entirely, or even largely, laid at the feet of the media. But the nation had a right to expect better warning from the thousands of reporters employed to follow the markets, just as people had a right to expect the same from those who covered the run-up to the Iraq war. Now, as news media face their own challenges, they must serve the public at large and not....
This kind of arrogant crap makes you want to puke, doesn't it?
--more--"
Need to make a toilet stop before the next one.
"Excesses of private equity put mattress firm on death bed
THE WORKERS at Simmons Bedding Co. should have stashed some extra money under their Beautyrest mattresses. But they couldn’t have known that their solid, stable company would fall prey to a Boston-based buyout firm, and become a poster child for the shocking excesses of the leveraged-buyout industry.
Related: As I Lay Me Down to Sleep
In a devastating example of how many private equity firms soak up big profits from companies without much concern for their long-term fate, Thomas H. Lee Partners and other private equity firms took in millions from the Atlanta-based mattress business. Now, Simmons is drowning in debt, and 1,000 of its workers have lost their jobs.
Lee Partners, The New York Times recently reported, borrowed against the mattress company’s assets to pay its own investors $238 million in dividends in 2007 alone. (Lee himself had left the firm in 2006.) The partnership raked in about $77 million in profits from Simmons before putting it up for sale when the recession hit. It paid Simmons’ chief executive, Charlie Eitel, handsomely - and one year, even kicked in $92,000 for his yacht captain.
Do you know how hard it is to get to sleep when you are angry?
In the meantime, heavy borrowing by a succession of owners has saddled Simmons with $1.3 billion in debt. The company had to lay off more than a quarter of its workforce last year and is filing for bankruptcy....
Yup, it ALWAYS COMES BACK to the BANKS!
****************************
Yeah, thanks for promoting this type of economic policy all these years, MSM.
And you wonder why we don't believe and hate you now?
Actually, it ISN'T OVER NOW and NEVER WILL BE according to the Globe!
For now? You mean we HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN in the future?
I thought the LOOTINGS, 'er, BAILOUTS reformed that?
Lee, a philanthropist who has given handsomely to Harvard University and other local institutions, has started a new private equity fund. One hopes he will extend his charitable spirit to the workers of the firms he takes over.
So THIEVES are now called PHILANTHROPISTS?
And that's ALL YOU HAVE, worker: HOPE
Don't get too full on it.
Nonetheless, Congress and financial regulators should do all they can to end the cozy system in which the very richest investors reap huge profits while passing on all the risks to bondholders and a company’s workers.
Pfffft!
--more--"
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I'm sorry, readers; I slept through that BG fart under the sheets.
Also see: Wall Street Now Screwing Seniors
Seeing as I we can't sleep in that bed:
"Cambridge: A tent city is a policy problem
In proudly liberal enclaves, there is sometimes an unspoken alliance between the homeless and the wealthy. The homeless take up residence on street corners and in parks, while powerful neighbors maintain a virtuous silence, either out of respect for self-expression or a desire to turn their unfortunate brethren into a political statement: This city will not hide from sight the victims of an uncaring society.
Related: Camping Out in Cambridge
Had enough of the elite insults, or.... ??
Something of the sort seems to be at work in Cambridge, where a tent city of local homeless has grown up in Flagstaff Park, led by a well-known street corner bookseller who speaks for himself and his girlfriend in declaring, “This is where we want to be.’’
**********************
But.... all the well-intentioned tolerance of their neighbors, would be much better directed at bringing homeless men and women into a social-service system that offers beds and services. Perhaps these efforts can be improved or redirected, but what’s beyond dispute is that a strong safety net offers far more hope for the homeless than a makeshift encampment.
The tent city in Flagstaff Park may well be a symbol of pride and independence. It may serve to highlight the larger society’s indifference to those with low incomes.
This is REALLY INSULTING coming from the PRO-ILLEGALS, PRO-LOOTER, PRO-TAX Boston Globe, folks. Of course, they aren't writing for us; they are writing it for themselves.
But it also suggests that current policies aren’t quite working - and symbolizes an uncomfortable alliance between stubbornness and political correctness.
That never seemed to bother the Zionists at the Globe before, especially when it comes to all things Israel.
--more--"
Governor Guts State Services
Pigs at the State Trough
A Slow Saturday Special: Statehouse Slush Fund
Biotech Giveaway Was Borrowed Money
Massachusetts Residents Taken For a Ride
UBS Picks Up Pike
Massachusetts Democrats Keep Making the Same Mistakes
Slow Saturday Special: Day at the Movies
The Hollywood Heist of Massachusetts
Why Massachusetts Needed to Raise Taxes
Mass. Budget MessSlow Saturday Special: State Defies the Fed
Massachusetts' New Nickel Tax
Can't find any money for the homeless, 'eh?
Don't you get a story before bedtime?
"Patrick’s bad-news Fridays
IT’S FRIDAY - and so we’re glancing nervously about, bracing for bad news. Perhaps today we’ll learn that a meteorite is headed toward Faneuil Hall. Or that a swarm of killer bees has crossed the border into Western Massachusetts.
Oh, they are so funny!!!
Related: Bees, Beetles, and Bears, Oh My!
That's not.
Of course, when bad news waits until Friday - as it often does in Massachusetts, especially under the Patrick administration - it usually has a political or economic bent.
And EVERYWHERE ELSE in the USA!
Related: Slow Saturday: The Definition
Slow Saturday Special: Patrick Knows
Boston Globe Knows About News Suppression
So this is just another in a long line of disingenuous fooleys by the BG ed crew, 'eh?
Last Friday, reporters were told that state tax collections were way off projections, which will almost certainly mean more budget cuts.
Even worse than you thought:
The previous Friday, there came word that Leslie Kirwan, the state’s highly regarded secretary of Administration and Finance, would be leaving to take a post at Harvard.
Related: Kirwan Returns to Ivory Tower
Releasing bad, unflattering, or embarrassing news on a Friday, and more particularly, on a Friday afternoon, has long been a way of minimizing political fallout. Bad tidings land with a diminished thud in weekend papers, news broadcasts, and websites.
I have PROVED THAT, haven't I, readers?
So it’s no real surprise that the politically embarrassing revelation of Transportation Secretary James Aloisi’s impending departure came on a Friday.
Related (third item down): Mass. Budget Mess
Similarly, the original word that the controversial Aloisi was being brought aboard last winter also came on a Friday. During a Friday blizzard, even.
See: Mass Revolving Door of Corruption
Repeated too often, these Friday-afternoon announcements look less like a gentle exploitation of the news cycle than like an effort by Governor Patrick to distance himself from his own policy choices and personnel decisions....
Hey, he's still learning!
