It seems just last week that I evaluated the many claims that Private Equity was about to go the way of over-the-counter Morphine, but, in fact, it was August 7th. Writing these sorts of articles is quickly going to require an intern here at Going Private to collect the many link references to the latest anti-private equity financial pundity. Just occasionally, however, the rare tone-setting snippet emerges. Today I found it in the Financial Times (regrettably, my new London bent has pressured me finally to subscribe) that, citing Mr. Bonderman, of recent Going Private organized private equity crime pin-up fame quips:
Turning on German politicians who have been highly critical of buy-outs, he said buy-outs had led to just 6,000 job losses in Germany compared with the combined 100,000 workers laid off recently by Volkswagen, Siemens and Deutsche Bank.
“That hasn’t made the papers because they speak better German than we do,” he said.
The only thing that would make it more amusing is the addition of a French joke in there. Somehow I expect Airbus has grown too full of holes to serve as a useful pin-cushion for this purpose, however.