It sticks in the craw. These vultures, like Ackman, are celebrated as risk taking job creators, heroes of the American way of life, but the truth is they can't lose. The political system they finance won't allow it. It truly is socialism for the rich and nasty, brutish capitalism for the rest.


It doesn't sound like the Bill Ackman I am familiar with. He is not a vulture, he is not really celebrated very much, and he is not even a job creator. He is an investor, he has taken a public position in this debate which makes sense to me (let the weak banks fail, give nothing to their shareholders and bondholders, guarantee deposits up to much larger amounts than $250,000, and now worries that the government not guaranteeing depositors' accounts at other small banks will cause a migration to the big banks, and that is undoubtedly happening as we speak). It is not because he has VC investments with deposits at SVB, it is because he believes that there is a systemic risk of failure of other small banks. And because he doesn't seem to think that 'brutish capitalism' should be for anyone, even if it doesn't affect his own investments.

You can agree with him about this or not, but I don't see why he has to be characterized as a vulture or as an insider defending the interests of the rich.

dtb