Everyone Loves a Circus
In just an hour or two from now, the Treasury Committee of the U.K Parliament will begin clowning its way through hearings on private equity. What you will see in this confrontation between private equity giants — executives of Permira, KKR, 3i, Carlyle and Blackstone are supposed to testify — and Parliament is the vengeful barking of talentless men. You will no doubt get a sense of the circus in store for us here in the U.S. The Financial Times' Alphaville reads the London papers and tells us how fanatical the popular press there has become (after the jump):
Polly Toynbee, in Tuesday’s Guardian, screeches “Stick it to these City caesars - for the sake of the nation.”
“Watch the clash between the power of capital and the rights of democracy, between tax fairness and free markets,” it goes on, pointing out that the private equity execs may provide a tougher challenge than the BVCA. “But the committee may have one advantage: City caesars are not used to challenge or contradiction. Up in their glass towers, rulers of both public and private companies are surrounded by obsequious courtiers in a world far removed from the rough and tumble of politics,” she adds.
The Independent is similarly outraged. “One rule for the super-rich, but another for everyone else,” thunders the strapline on their lead story. “Today will see the latest phase in a ferocious row breaking out over the privileges of a select group of multi-millionaires who dominate the financial affairs of London.”
The Daily Mail meanwhile is in more gloating form. “They are used to being treated as City royalty, but Britain’s top private equity bosses may feel more like chastened schoolboys as they file into today’s Treasury Select Committee hearing.”
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