After two long years, and in a fit of insomnia brought on by too many Coen Brothers films (a particular weakness of mine- my theory, after three viewings, on No Country for Old Men is that everyone who tries to straddle both worlds, the good and the evil, pays for it. Only those who are pure, who accept and embrace the limits of their goodness, or their evil, Anton, the gas station attendant, Tommy Lee Jones, survive the film), I have updated Going Private's "about" page. I suppose it is sort of amusing when you only have to change two digits on the date of the old "last updated" entry to reflect reality. Ironically, there wasn't much new to add. I suppose I could have fleshed out the "frequently asked questions" section some more, but not really. I would have spent a lot of time reproducing obnoxious, or patently obscene questions.
For the most part I have endeavored to avoid personal reference, and personal commentary, aside from my view on e.g., economics, or policy- or perhaps to explain my inability to post regularly for a time. Except in that sort of tangential way, I always had an aversion to making Going Private about "me." To me it has always been more about the industry, the business, free markets, and suchlike. It is not that I am not sentimental, well, ok, not solely that, but rather that it felt very... imposing? Imposing and presumptuous to write yet another blog about "a day in the life of Cindy Q. Whoever." Aren't there enough of those?
Still, it had been a vague desire of mine to do something retrospective for Going Private's two year anniversary. Unfortunately, I happened to be so busy that particular month, that it passed me by unnoticed.
I feel like a contrite husband who worked right through his anniversary without noticing. (Though, I will point out that you, dear reader, would then play the part of the vindictive wife who let the critical date pass in complete silence- without so much as a vague, veiled reminder- as a cruel test your hard-working husband was designed to fail).
That retrospective desire, however, battled with the sentiment that to do more than list a series of "anniversary facts" would be self-serving, self-indulgent and self-centered. The tendency to prolific verbal exposition in my life, I always felt, should be limited to the late night calls I field from Laura The Debt Bitch after her long night of good coke and bad sex.
4:12 am
"Hello?"
In hushed tones: "You ARE awake! I have to tell you something about how I love working with you."
"Uh huh. Uh, what time is it?
"Doesn't matter."
"Why are you whispering?"
"I'm in bed."
-moderate length pause-
"Your bed?"
"No, stupid. He's sleeping. Don't worry."
-long pause-
"What do you want, Laura?"
"I love working with you. Really."
"Ok. Thanks."
"Night."
"Night."
Trite. Contentless. Better never uttered in the first place.
Be this as it may, tonight (this morning) I cannot help myself. I have enjoyed intensely writing Going Private. I have reveled in the reader mail, the commentary, and some of the (by necessity distant) friendships Going Private has brought me. It would be somewhat heartless of me not to inject a bit of sentiment, no?
And so, I give you, sort of a mean between extremes of the two battling forces of sentiment and sterility: Equity Private's top 15 Going Private Posts of 2006 (2007 to follow):
Unbalanced
Swords at Dawn
Compelled to Submit to Privations
Punishing Talent for Fun and Profit
NYSE Buyout in the Works
Kierkegaard, Scientologists, Private Equity
What Spaceward Ho! Taught Me
Enron, Overhang and Private Equity
Control, Liquidity and "The Deal"
The New Baroque
They're KKRrreat!
Don't Cross the Debt Bitch
Mission Impossible Capital, LP
The Lost Wisdom of Polonius
Bourgeois Pigs
