Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power

Last week, the Wall Street Journal released an important story that chronicled how the private equity industry kingpin KKR systematically took advantage of its credulous investors via taking questionable charges through its related company KKR Capstone. We’ve published 12 private equity limited partnership agreements, including the KKR limited partnership agreement that key to the Wall Street Journal’s story.

Naked Capitalism welcomes its new readers from the private equity industry.

How the Vietnam War helped usher in neoliberalism, financialization of the economy, and the use of military spending as stealth stimulus.

The sorry tale of the supposedly restored Spanish zombie bank Catalunya Caixa.

Were the results of the European elections a tremor or an earthquake?

I don’t think that this is a Reinhart and Rogoff moment that discredits the underlying thesis of Piketty’s book. Rather I think that it is just another lesson in data analysis for us all. Lies, lies and damned statistics, as they say

Even if you don’t agree with all of Eckle’s views on reinventing business, his effort to identify and strip away misguided conventional wisdom is a productive place to start.

In an important, well-reaserched article, Gretchen Morgenson flags several types of private equity fee abuses. Did the incoming New York Times editor, Dean Baquet, bury her story by running it Memorial Day weekend?

The US economy, and by extension the world economy, is desperately waiting for the spring escape velocity to finally kick in. But the latest world trade statistics say it’s not happening.

Yves here. If you live in an advanced economy, and are at least middle income, you probably don’t give much thought to the availability of food. Expect that to change in the coming years. Agribusiness is a major driver of food insecurity. Successful experiments show that relocalization of food production can be an effective remedy.

Chris Giles of the Financial Times has charged Thomas Piketty with making Reinhart and Rogoff-like data and methodological errors in his best-selling book on wealth inequality, Capital in the 21st Century.