Popeulism Bono Style

Columnist Fareed Zakaria wrote:

I wanted to understand Europe’s populism. So I talked to Bono. 

Economist Andy Xie wrote:

The world needs a new generation of policymakers who don’t hobnob with billionaire speculators and who understand workers’ concerns. Unfortunately, the change will not come smoothly. Political turmoil in the West is very much about this. A heavy price has to be paid to bring about the change

In 2008, Beijing and Washington pumped in massive amounts of money to bail out speculators in the name of saving the economy and helping workers. The reality is that they used workers’ money to enrich parasites. 

Parasites include private equity underwriters (PEU) who buy companies, load them with debt, milk them for cash and flip them for huge returns.  Bono is a PEU with Elevation Partners, co-founding the firm in 2005.  Bono hobnobs with fellow rich speculators at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Private equity underwrites get preferred carried interest taxation.  Loading up affiliates with debt reduces their tax burden as do various tax avoidance schemes.

Irish Bono may be familiar with this one.

The double Irish with a Dutch sandwich is a tax avoidance technique employed by certain large corporations, involving the use of a combination of Irish and Dutch subsidiary companies to shift profits to low or no tax jurisdictions. The scheme involves sending profits first through one Irish company, then to a Dutch company, and finally to a second Irish company headquartered in a tax haven. This technique has made it possible for certain corporations to reduce their overall corporate tax rates dramatically.

The double Irish with a Dutch sandwich is generally considered to be a very aggressive tax planning strategy. It is, however, famously used by some of the world's largest corporations, such as Google, Apple and Microsoft. In 2014, it came under heavy scrutiny, especially from the United States and the European Union, when it was discovered that this technique facilitated the transfer of several billion dollars annually tax-free to tax havens.

Workers with stagnant wages are tired of executives and boards getting outsized compensation off their backs.  How do workers at Elevation Partners affiliates feel about their PEU owners?

Elevation made huge returns on its Facebook stake when the company went public in 2012.  April 2015 found Bono with a new private equity appointment:

U2 frontman Bono has accepted the role of special adviser to a new $3 billion growth fund currently raised by equity fund investor David Bonderman's TPG Capital.

Fareed Zacharia lobbed softball questions at Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein.  Fareed is part of system that maintains the current political and power structure.   He should talk to real Europeans/Americans and ask why seven times to get at root causes of citizen dismay.  He might arrive in the same place as Andy Xie.

Update 9-24-18:  Elevation narrowly missed out on Pandora which announced a $3.5 billion sale to Sirius-XM.

Update 9-24-18:  Christopher Hedges wrote "economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.  Irish born Bono has far more influence on U.S. government policy than American citizens.  "Elites, who sacrifice nothing for society and are not held accountable for their criminal behavior, live in a “stateless archipelago.” They are empowered to pillage the nation, amass obscene wealth and wield unchecked political and legal control.  Bono is an elite and Zacharia an enabler.

Update 9-26-18:   The Guardian noted the outsized influence of the super rich, i.e. the greed and leverage boys.  Some researchers have concluded that wealthy people and business interests have 15 times the political efficacy of the rest of the population. Most people are unhappy with the status quo, and do not think it’s fair that wealthier people have disproportionate political influence.

Update 9-28-18:  Billionaire David Rubenstein recently lobbed softball questions to Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man. 

Update 9-6-23:  Elevation Partners website states:

 In 2015, Bono (an Elevation Co-Founder and Managing Director) joined TPG Growth as a Special Partner. In 2016 Bono co-founded The Rise Fund, a global social impact fund which invests in seven sectors aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Update 10-25-23:  A Bono, Bezos, Gates company intended to revolutionize trucking may be going under.  Convoy will "shut down core business operations immediately while some staff would be retained to wind down operations and for potential future strategic options."