Select committee round 2 - no-score draw?

Reading the reports of yesterday's second round of select committee evidence from the private equity industry, I get the impression that the heads of the big buyout firms did an OK job of defending themselves. They certainly didn't suffer the same kind of implosion as the BVCA vanguard did last week. The coverage in today's FT is worth a read, also this bit in the Telegraph about the Treasury's own evidence to the committee. I think the report is overblown, but it's interesting to see that HMT might think there's a problem with incentives that misalign the interests of general partners (the buyout mob) and limited partners (the pension funds and others committing capital).

As an aside, I see that FT reports that Sion "idiot" Simon yet again decided to direct his fire at the unions, accusing them of indulging in "class politics". Its true that there has been some knockabout campaigning from the unions, but let's be honest, if that hadn't happened we probably wouldn't be having the policy debate about private equity at all. Perhaps he should make another "hilarious" spoof video to get his message across. Or at least get his hair cut.

Finally, there's an interesting slip at the end of the Telegraph's comment piece today.

If the price to pay for a dynamic wealth and job-creating economy is a handful of clever people enjoying the riches of Croesus, on balance it's one worth paying.

People often use the phrase "the riches of Croesus" to describe the super-wealthy, but the story on which the phrase is based has a rather different ending. Croesus ending up losing his kingdom, and was nearly executed. He was only saved because, as he was about to be burnt alive, he basically acknowledged the fickleness of good fortune and wealth (I'm simplifying a bit here!). The story has been used as a warning against hubris, and assuming your good fortune will last. Here's the Wiki version.

(I should point at this stage that I only know this because the story is recounted - as a warning against assuming wealthy people know what they are doing - in the rather excellent book Fooled By Randomness that I'm currently reading.)

Actually, thinking about it, maybe the Telegraph description is more apt than I realised.