Great PEU Cash In 2021

Bloomberg reported:

Blackstone Inc., Apollo Global Management Inc. and Carlyle Group Inc. collectively sold out of almost $150 billion in deals, double that of the prior year.

The influx of cash pushed earnings to new highs, minted new wealth for dealmakers and added to private equity’s allure during Wall Street’s war for talent.

As Congress considered increasing taxes on the wealthy, private equity underwriters (PEU) took advantage of low interest rates to flip affiliates in the midst of a giant corporate asset bubble.   The Carlyle Group's CFO said “2021 was a special year” with the cash from exits. 

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU so no tax raises on the wealthy, no matter how condescending they act.  Preferred "carried interest" taxation ensures the PEU boys mint more take home wealth.  Deal and management fees add to their obscene bounty.  

The greed and leverage boys won't make housing more affordable or healthcare cheaper.  They will look at their money stash in relation to other billionaires.  Might it be envy?  

Munger Insults Critics of Billionaire Created Tax Systems

Yahoo Finance reported:

Billionaire investor Charlie Munger on Wednesday acknowledged worldwide "tension" over wealth inequality but said critics of the ultra-rich are "motivated by envy."

"It is the nature of our species that we look around us at other people and are envious of them if they have more than we do," added Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B). "That envy has always been a big problem."

Insulting people with no voice in relation to policy making billionaires has a Marie Antionette feel.  Exchanging the sin of greed for the projection of envy may be a way to rationalize that which is abjectly offensive.  How much money does one need, Mr. Munger?   

PEUReport has long criticized preferred "carried interest" taxation as a fairness issue.  Private equity founders rode leverage, fees and tax breaks to achieve billionaire status, like Charlie Munger.  

Workers experienced the crappy hand of PEU sponsorship.  Renters found PEU landlords to be less concerned about maintenance and quick to raise rent.  Patients received lesser care and surprise medical bills.  Voters realized their opinions had zero impact on major issues.  

An insult from Charlie Munger is icing on that Marie Antionette cake.  Questions of fairness and basic humanity remain unanswered by the Munger class.

Update:  Charlie's been hard-hearted for some time.  In 2010 Munger, the billionaire vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., defended the U.S. rescue of financial companies in 2008 and told students that people in economic distress should "suck it in and cope."

SEC Fines BlockFi, Leaves Out Winklevoss Twins

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reported:

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged BlockFi Lending LLC (BlockFi) with failing to register the offers and sales of its retail crypto lending product. In this first-of-its-kind action, the SEC also charged BlockFi with violating the registration provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940. To settle the SEC’s charges, BlockFi agreed to pay a $50 million penalty, cease its unregistered offers and sales of the lending product, BlockFi Interest Accounts (BIAs), and attempt to bring its business within the provisions of the Investment Company Act within 60 days. BlockFi’s parent company also announced that it intends to register under the Securities Act of 1933 the offer and sale of a new lending product. In parallel actions announced today, BlockFi agreed to pay an additional $50 million in fines to 32 states to settle similar charges.

The press release did not identify BlockFi's parent,  It's Gemini Trust, co-founded by the billionaire Winklvoss twins. Policy making billionaires get kid glove treatment from government officials.

Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, BlockFi agreed to a cease-and-desist order prohibiting it from violating the registration and antifraud provisions of the Securities Act and the registration provisions of the Investment Company Act. BlockFi also agreed to cease offering or selling BIAs in the United States.

Settlements without charges are common for the wealthy and politically connected. Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein invested in Paxos.  BlockFi offers Paxos Standard and Paxos Gold.

Rubenstein and the Winklevoss twins can afford to lose a lot and still have more than one king's ransom.  The greed and leverage boys love flipping equity stakes but enjoy fee collecting just as much.  Customers who like bank fees will love crypto. 

Experts warn to only invest in cryptocurrency what you can afford to lose.  Recognize the crypto game is stacked toward billionaire backers.  That's not you.

Update 2-15-22:  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is warning investors about risks associated with accounts that pay clients high interest rates for depositing crypto assets.  Risks that retail investors face generally with crypto assets, including price volatility and possible fraud.

Update 2-16-17:  MarketWatch said "Look at it like you’re a gambler walking into a casino.’ Here’s exactly how much of your nest egg financial pros say should be invested in crypto.

Update 5-11-22:  Fortune reported:

In the event the crypto exchange goes bankrupt, Coinbase says, its users might lose all the cryptocurrency stored in their accounts too.

Update 6-2-22:  MarketWatch reported:

Billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss announced that 10% of jobs at their cryptocurrency exchange and custodian, Gemini Trust, would be eliminated.

Update 11-29-22:  More funny money implodes:

Crypto lender BlockFi has about $355 million in cryptocurrencies currently frozen on crypto exchange FTX, attorney Joshua Sussberg told a U.S. bankruptcy court on Tuesday.

The $355 million is on top of another $671 million in loan to FTX sister company Alameda Research.

Update 9-28-23:  NYPo reported:

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss secretly withdrew more than $280 million held by their crypto company’s bank — mere months before the firm’s collapse left the twins’ customers unable to access their deposits,

Accounting Firm KPMG Buys Crypto

KPMG LLP, a full-service Audit, Tax and Advisory firm owned and operated by Canadians, placed part of its treasury in cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin and Ethereum. The company's core values are Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, and For Better.  

The company jumped into holding crypto as part of its service offering.

"The cryptoasset industry continues to grow and mature and it needs to be considered by financial services and institutional investors," says Kareem Sadek, Advisory Partner, Cryptoassets and Blockchain Services co-leader, KPMG in Canada.

"We've invested in a strong cryptoassets practice and we will continue to enhance and build on our capabilities across Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse, to name a few. We expect to see a lot of growth in these areas in the years to come," he added.

Crypto is not a stretch for the accounting profession.  It allowed off balance sheet obligations that took down major financial firms in 2008.   

Adjusted EBITDA evolved to multiply already obscene levels of executive compensation.  The accounting profession (with its large consulting arms) acquiesced. 

Having missed the Beanie Baby craze and the meme stock craziness of GameStop and AMC, KPMG is ready to embrace cryptocurrencies. 

I'm sure it will turn out well after Uncle Sam backstops the systemic risk taken on by the wealthy class.  Heaven forbid anyone drop from $4 billion in net worth to $1 billion.  They may not be able to pay their accountant as handsomely for tax avoidance.  

Update 2-10-22:  First the accountants caved, then the financial media.  Forbes announced a $200 million investment from Binance, a crypto exchange, in its upcoming SPAC.  Conflicted financial watchdogs?  It's the PEU way.  All the policemen are on the take.

Update 2-21-22:  Wall Street on Parade noted "the largest global firms — Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC— and the largest next tier firms such as Grant Thornton, BDO, and RSM, are less focused on performing their public duty of auditing and more interested in playing all sides of client opportunities to optimize their payday."

Update 2-27-22:  Warren Buffet had some not so nice things to say about adjusted EBITDA. "Deceptive 'adjustments' to earnings – to use a polite description – have become both more frequent and more fanciful as stocks have risen," Buffett wrote. "Speaking less politely, I would say that bull markets breed bloviated bull." 

Update 5-18-22:  The cryptocurrency unwind came quickly after financial whores Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were in the Bahamas pushing crypto.

If you don’t see that the crypto “industry” has become just as blindingly corrupt, just as oozingly fatuous, just as profoundly captured by the Nudging Oligarchy as the traditional financial services industry it was supposed to replace … well, you’re just not paying attention.

Update 8-2-22:  A number of FDIC insured banks ran with the crypto devils and may go under as a result.  How this is remotely OK is a question one should ask David Rubenstein and his former employee Jerome Powell/

Update 12-29-22:  Harvesting tax losses on unsellable NFT's is the latest rage.  KPMG can confirm these assets no longer have any value and  are likely to continue to be worthless.

Update 10-15-23:   KPMG said staff did not do their job in auditing Carillion.  The UK government contractor collapsed in January 2018

Peter Thiel Wants to Elect More PEUs

Facebook/Meta board member Peter Thiel announced he would leave to focus on electing two Red Team private equity underwriters (PEU) to Congress.  Both PEUs were formerly under his employ.  Arizona's Blake Masters has his sights set on the U.S. Senate, while J.D. Vance is running for another U.S. Senate seat (Ohio).

Being an economic bully is now an automatic qualifier for public service?  It used to be private equity hired former government officials so it could lobby insiders as a non-lobbyist.  Innovation has the greed and leverage boys storming the ballot so they can steer public budgets directly to their friends.

How do they do in office?  Take Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Biden Science Advisor Eric Landers.

Former Carlyle Group CEO Glenn Youngkin proved his tightly controlled campaign could bully a 17 year old kid.  

Team Youngkin decided to remove the message after belatedly learning that Lynne — identified on Twitter as “Virginian. HS Senior. Democrat.” — was a minor. A spokesman called the teen a “Democrat Party official” and suggested that Democrats had made Lynne a fair target by previously promoting him on Twitter.

This came after Youngkin's 17 year old son unsuccessfully tried to vote for his father.  The election official attributed it to an innocent effort, albeit unsuccessful.  Here's how the Youngkin campaign responded.

"It's unfortunate that while Glenn attempts to unite the Commonwealth around his positive message of better schools, safer streets, a lower cost of living, and more jobs, his political opponents - mad that they suffered historic losses this year - are pitching opposition research on a 17-year old kid who honestly misunderstood Virginia election law and simply asked polling officials if he was eligible to vote; when informed he was not, he went to school."

Youngkin's campaign clearly pitched opposition research on the unrelated teen.  This is interesting, given how tightly Youngkin controlled messaging.  Politico reported:

So if you have your own brand, like Glenn did — and [that's] hard; it helps to have about a half-billion dollars in the bank and be able to put about $20 million in the campaign and raise another $40 million so you can have your own brand in a very expensive media market, create your own culture, create your own kind of winning-team mentality, have a fleece vest and a hat for everybody who comes across the Potomac and wants to get on the campaign team and join a winning operation — that's all good. When you create that kind of culture, and that opportunity and that vision of what the state can be like, then endorsements don't matter as much anyway.

When we were creating our own brand for Glenn, it was not in the image of anyone else.  You're a Youngkin Republican. Plant your guidepost, and go be your own guy. 

Alpha Glenn is his own greed and leverage for power man.  Why would someone of his stature need to apologize to a kid?  To remove the log in his eye.

Blue Team cabinet member Eric Landers resigned after bullying staff.  The richest Biden Cabinet member has a personal net worth of $45 million.  Landers PEU associations include F Prime Capital and Third Rock Ventures.  StatNews reported:

Landers became a symbol of plowing lots of resources into industrialized, mindless science that could be run by machines and technicians.

Sounds like a PEU.  Guidepost planted as the greed and leverage boys target taking over government from the inside.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU.  Should Peter Thiel be successful, even more of those politicians are one.  It bodes poorly for citizens and workers.

Update 2-10-22:  Having PEUs populate Congress can help take the sting our of any stock trading ban.  They can steer all that obscene individual wealth to their politically preferred PEU.  Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and many are one.

Business Insider painted Landers ouster on academic arrogance.  That misses the hubris frequently found amongst the greed and leverage boys.

Update 9-14-23:  Red Team Senator and former PEU Mitt Romney revealed he would not run for reelection.  He called out some of his fellow Senators.

“I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more than J.D. Vance,” Romney told journalist McKay Coppins.

Vance, like Romney is a former PEU.  Romney also called out Insane Reds Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley.  Like Vance they went full MAGA and foisted Trump's nonsense on the public.

Central Bankers Facilitate Worker Pain, Suffering

UK's central bank chief called for workers to "hold off asking for big pay raises because that will make inflation worse."

"That's painful. I don't want to in any sense sugar that," he told the BBC. "It is painful, but we need to see that in order to get through this problem more quickly."

It's not time for workers to get their fair share of the economic pie after decades of watching executive pay soar.

...compensation of the top CEOs increased 1,322.2% from 1978 to 2020 (adjusting for inflation). Top CEO compensation grew roughly 60% faster than stock market growth during this period and far eclipsed the slow 18.0% growth in a typical worker’s annual compensation.

 U.S. Fed Chair Jay Powell ignored the question on inflation hitting the poor harder.

"I’m not aware of um, you know, inflation literally falling more on different socioeconomic groups. That’s not the point. The point is some people are just really prone to suffer more."

 Central banks to the little people, keep suffering.  To policy making billionaires, we got your back.

Update 2-8-22:  Record bonuses for Wall Street have not been cited as inflationary by central banksters.  

“It doesn’t make any sense how unemployment is through the roof and everyone just has money somehow. I have never seen an uptick in the higher-end spectrum of things like this with $200,000 cars being bought like they’re Jell-O.”

Update 2-10-22:  The British people didn't take kindly to their Fed Chief's comments.  Understandably so.

Shadow PEU Government Meeting in Florida

America's policy making billionaires will meet in Florida under the tutelage of Michael Milken.  Together they will steer future government policy to their benefit, as they have done for the last three decades.  

Milken is the former Junk Bond King and convicted fraudster.  He ushered in private equity underwriting (PEU) as his generation's founding father.  The first Milken Institute South Florida Dialogues start Friday.  

Red Team supporter and billionaire Peter Thiel will present on mental health.  Will he address why the average citizen can't get their wishes enacted?  The majority have long wanted much cheaper healthcare, the rich to pay more in taxes and weapons of war be restricted to the battlefield.   Peter's on the opposite side of all that.  As a policy making billionaire, he gets his way.  Yes. it is maddening.

Foreclosure king and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will attend, as will Blackstone co-founder Stephen Schwarzman.  Blue Team corporacrat Joe Manchin will join them in talking about social and economic mobility.  It's a train that only goes uphill.  Any declines are moral hazard and to be absorbed by Uncle Sam and Federal Reserve Bank. 

The ride must be comfortable for rich. white men, so no difficult topics please.  As the train rises the air thins to the point that only billionaires remain.  With the common people culled they can now meet with elected officials and have their will be done. President Trump kindly expunged Milken's securities fraud conviction.

..."From the Hamptons to Palm Beach to Mara Lago, white as foam, God Bless PEUmerica, leveraged loan, sweet loan.  God Bless PEUmerica, its government we own."

Update 2-4-22:  FT reinforced the point regarding socialism for the wealthy and capitalism for the poor.  Choo cho!