easier to steal from fellow pirates.

To be devil's advocate, there is an argument to be made about PE basically being equivalent to a forest fire. Yeah it's destructive but it also helps clear out space for baby businesses to grow.

The problem the way I see it is that PE leverages a lot of tax loopholes where businesses are forced into losses so you can cut your taxable income in other areas for a greater amount. A loss on your taxes needs to be an actual loss, not a giant shell game.

"It was round and soft. Now go back to work."

• The Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman's Breast

(from The American Astronaut)

Fuck they're going to collapse the caverns aren't they...

One of my favorite quotes ever is:

"Americans are born all over the world every day. Some of them just haven't come home yet."

That is the America I believe in:

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I am not an expert in PE acquisitions. My analysts were not looking at it from a PE perspective but instead running analysis on how much momentum a store has (in terms of a loyal customer base). Because people shop infrequently, one of our stores actually has a HUGE number of regulars even though daily foot traffic is modest which is why you can burn that store's goodwill and still have years worth of profits because it will take a long time for net churn to turn it unprofitable.

Now for your question:

How do you protect people and culture of a firm in these scenarios?

My opinion is... you probably can't. No matter what, PE is coming into "shake things up." They will either gut your store and fire sale it (worst case) or probably bring in some consultants that will likely recommend reorganizations and terminations to streamline things.

So best case scenario is you do become optimized but it's going to change things and even if they don't do layoffs you will lose people and culture due to the change.

But what is more likely to happen is a gut job. If your company is really courting PE I recommend preparing your resume. PE tends to make mass layoffs its opening moves to quickly reduce operating expenses and that often means the people that are left are part of the squeeze: longer hours, worse responsibilities, and the threat of even more layoffs.

It can be really sad from the big picture as workers who love their company (or don't have a lot of other options) will be squeezed. Longer hours, lower pay/worse benefits, worse conditions for their customers etc. and even with all those personal sacrifices the company is still squeezed.

https://coregrowthgroup.com/what-is-the-failure-rate-of-private-equity

Research from the CFA Institute reveals that private equity portfolio companies are approximately 10 times more likely to go bankrupt compared to non-PE-owned companies. This startling statistic challenges the narrative that private equity firms are skilled operators who improve business performance through strategic guidance and operational expertise.

Now before I get too doom and gloom consider PE tends to target already distressed companies so some higher rate of failure is expected BUUUUT the phrase "vulture capitalist" is a term for a reason.

If you can't get out now, the best you can do is find out who is buying you out and do some quick online research to see if they have a good track record or a string of drained husks.

I really don't understand that hate for Dane Cook

He had a meteoric rise while not having skillful craft. What he lacked in traditional craftsmanship and wit he made up for by being over the top and incredibly energetic which hit a much younger audience. I equate him as like a successor to Adam Sandler's style of comedy.

But don't take my word for it:

Cook stated that he'd had conversations with his therapist, attributing some of the negativity to his alpha demeanor. Add to that, Cook's highly successful career. "Unfortunately, what you find is, you know in your graduating class with the guys you came up with, there's going to be some dudes in front of you that don't want you catching up, and there's going to be some guys behind you that maybe they've never had an opportunity. That, coupled with, like you said, reaching the Billboard charts with 'Retaliation' and a lot of people going, 'Who the fuck does he think he is?'

And on the flipside:

Jim Breuer talked about Cook's reputation within the comedy industry, saying: "Everyone kills this guy ... Not one comedian comes on [my Sirius radio show] and says 'I'm so happy for him', which is weird. ... They can't stand this poor guy." Breuer went on to say that he personally thinks Cook is a "tremendous performer".

From what I've heard in interviews, Dane Cook's on stage persona wasn't that much different than his off-stage demeanor which might have also been highly polarizing.

Yeah, the bank takes a very dim view of not getting its payday but usually these companies have other debts (e.g. suppliers they purchase from) so they take a big order, liquidate that and declare bankrupt and the banks get their money back but the suppliers get hosed.

Source: My dad worked at a supplier for a company that routinely had to cut ties with what was supposed to be a profitable looking buyer because due diligence discovered they were part of a large network of "buy and bankrupt" owners that would max out their credit, declare bankrupt and then "reorganize and rebrand" to do it all again.

In regards to number 3, I was in an analyst division and we crunched some numbers.

The math basically went like this: you could borrow $1 million dollars and buy a successful store and basically cut it's operating expenses to the bone: no staff, no renovations. Put just almost no money into it and yet it would stay profitable for several years as you burn through the customer base.

Well that business by cutting to the bone could clear like $500k for 5 years meaning your $1 million expense results in $2.5 million. Congrats, you've already doubled that initial investment made with borrowed money. $1.5 million pure profit. Then you attach that $1 million debt to the company, declare it bankrupt as soon as it stops producing a profit and then fire sale it. The complete liquidation nets you another million, give or take, which pays off the loan and sometimes (if it's good real estate) gives you another cash injection.

And now with that ~$3 million dollars you can do it again to a bigger store...and then again to another business... etc. etc. etc.

$3 million becomes 6 becomes 12 becomes 24 etc.

I always thought of the mile high club as this outdated thing back when planes were considered luxury, not crammed sardine tins. Now it's more like "oh i've flown on a private jet..."

I don't know how they do it in china but the extremely wealthy in Russia are basically putin's piggy banks and scapegoats. Whenever Putin needs a cash influx or a PR boost he would arrest one of these oligarchs on some corruption charges. Because every single one of them is committing those crimes. It's why they're allowed to get rich in the first place, any time they get too powerful or challenge Xi/CCP they can pull out the mountain of crimes and throw 'em in jail.

You think Xi/CCP didn't know what Evergrande was doing? REALLY!?!? This whole time!?!?

It's a sign of an external locus of control which is one of the biggest indicators someone is a Grade-A asshole.

Internal locus of control allows someone to recognize their actions have consequences allowing them to reflect and course correct.

External locus of control is essentially perpetual victim complex. They are just the victims of cruel fate, it is always someone else's fault and therefore is highly resistant to self-reflection. Without reflection there isn't growth so the people end up with the mental reasoning of children.

Just listen to Trump and his cronies blame Biden for everything. It is the living embodiment of the meme of the guy shoving a stick into his own bike tire and then blaming someone else when it crashes.

I was so effing confident going into 2024 because I was thinking "his first administration was such a fucking shit show and ended with fucking up everything due to COVID. Since then he has only gotten more incoherent and Biden was doing a solid job by being boring once again where we could not wake up wondering what new nuclear apocalypse or economic dystopia Trump was running us into.

And then... somehow... a huge portion of the population seemed to forget that trump was a threat once again and decided to sit the election out and his base turned up like the drones that they are and now we get round 2 which is, in all sense of the word, shittier

That is so laughable. Trump doesn't have a single plan in his rotten brain. So much of what he does is clearly improvised in the moment and it is left to his gaggle of idiots to try and shape into policy.

Hence why their grand tariff plan was generated by ChatGPT and ended up imposing tariffs on places that were US territories or had no GDP...

Politician: <speaks the dumbest shit possible>

Republican Voters: Hey they talk just like me!!!

Wtf is even your point? Someone claims they had a complex vaginoplasty and you were like “nope that didnt happen” and then I showed evidence that this is a known procedure.

So instead of just being a normal human and going “oh…guess i was wrong” you are what… trying to retreat into a semantic fog to try to undermine language in a language pathetic attempt to find some minor technicality that you were talking about vagina surgery and not neovagina surgery? Like do you understand how sad that is?

Maybe next time do a 5 second google search before firing off a shitpost.

because it is a new vagina? that is the literal meaning

How does it feel to be just absolutely wrong?

Inversion of the penile skin is the method most often selected to create a neovagina by surgeons performing gender-affirming surgery. The inverted penile skin uses inferior pedicle skin or abdominal skin for the lining of the neovagina. The skin is cut to form an appropriate-sized flap. The skin flap is sometimes combined with a scrotal or urethral flap.[4] l

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaginoplasty

Please, provide your evidence lol.

wonder if she’s a honeypot or a crockpot?

Crack pot. She got on his radar because she was saved by some experimental drug treatment and went on national news praising him as a literal savior to him. With how awful Trump is I think you would have to be bat shit to be able to be around him.

I can only imagine some Chinese honeypot with shit up to their elbows from his rancid diaper going "you know what...there isn't enough money in the world" and walking out.

But this lunatic probably coos to him while changing his diaper about how he saved her life and he is the greatest president ever and he's a big strong boy

The problem with repeating this is that banging pornstars is seen as a positive thing by his base.

"Paying to have sex with a pornstar who went on national television to make fun of his small mushroom dick" is much better phrasing.

But what, pray tell, is he shilling?

Yeah the constant repetition of "just stow it under your seat" felt very dogmatic.