One lesson we kinda sorta knew already has been brought into sharp relief by the coronavirus crisis:
Hedge funds and vulture capitalists make Tim Martin and Mike Ashley look like angels.
Any business they own is a black box, nothing more. Doesn't pump out money? Cut it. Axe it.
Hedge funds and vulture capitalists make Tim Martin and Mike Ashley look like angels.
Any business they own is a black box, nothing more. Doesn't pump out money? Cut it. Axe it.
All those lovely 100, 150, 200 year old firms that we think of as the backbone of the high street?
Many were already walking dead before the virus, doomed the moment their original owners flipped them to a hedge fund and ran off into the sunset with a bag of loot.
Many were already walking dead before the virus, doomed the moment their original owners flipped them to a hedge fund and ran off into the sunset with a bag of loot.
At least Tim Martin and Mike Ashley, for all their many many many faults, fancy themselves business owners. In the back of their minds, there's a tiny hint of a desire to preserve something for the future, even if it's well disguised by rapacious greed.
But hedge funds? They'd sell still-warm human flesh without batting an eyelid if it were legal or they thought they could get away with it.
We should be more attentive in future. If a business disappears into the black hole of a hedge fund, take your custom elsewhere!
We should be more attentive in future. If a business disappears into the black hole of a hedge fund, take your custom elsewhere!
