Re:Suck It, Wall Street
by tptacek on Sunday January 31, 2021 @12:50AM
(#25976415)
I don't know why this got downvoted. Sorry it took so long to respond to. Since it's stale, I'll keep it brief.
Like I said, I was working from notes. I reread his piece carefully. I don't find Taibbi's defense very persuasive; for instance, I think if you read his piece, it's pretty clear that he's suggesting that PE firms put up pennies on the dollar, and that they were in some manner culpable for the first dotcom bubble and for the 2008 crisis. I also think that even when Taibbi is "right", what he's mostly doing is hyperventilating over banal side-issues that aren't the real problem. I read his writing about downside protection for PE deals and wonder what he'd say about liquidation preferences.
But either way: I concede the point that Taibbi's LBO writing is mostly notable because Dan Primack took the time to write a takedown. It's not as bad as his NYC parking meter writing, or his Obama bailout writing, or, god help us, his writing on dark pools and HFT.
On the other hand: being (mostly) directionally right about LBOs is kind of a lay-up? Like, it was the plot of Wall Street.
Like I said, I was working from notes. I reread his piece carefully. I don't find Taibbi's defense very persuasive; for instance, I think if you read his piece, it's pretty clear that he's suggesting that PE firms put up pennies on the dollar, and that they were in some manner culpable for the first dotcom bubble and for the 2008 crisis. I also think that even when Taibbi is "right", what he's mostly doing is hyperventilating over banal side-issues that aren't the real problem. I read his writing about downside protection for PE deals and wonder what he'd say about liquidation preferences.
But either way: I concede the point that Taibbi's LBO writing is mostly notable because Dan Primack took the time to write a takedown. It's not as bad as his NYC parking meter writing, or his Obama bailout writing, or, god help us, his writing on dark pools and HFT.
On the other hand: being (mostly) directionally right about LBOs is kind of a lay-up? Like, it was the plot of Wall Street.