How gratifying to see one of America's iconic business sites publish something that doesn't feature the usual knee-jerk anti-labor bias. Of course, maybe Adam Hartung inadvertently slipped this one past his editors and we'll next see his byline at the Daily Worker.
By now the story of Hostess' demise is well trod territory. It's been brought to my attention that I've been wrong to pin the blame on hedge fund shitbags. I'm not so sure. Maybe Ripplewood is going to take a haircut on this one, but apparently two bond funds hold all or most of the secured debt.
That means the sharpies who bought the debt at pennies on the dollar back around the time of the original Hostess bankruptcy are going to be sitting pretty as they get paid out in full, while thousands of pensioners will be up Shit Creek without a paddle.
Not to mention that in the course of the last eight years a clique of insiders in the executive suite rewarded themselves with outlandish raises and bonuses while demanding draconian givebacks from the workers and "managing" a venerable company into the ground.
There may be examples extant of hedge funds making a useful contribution to the society at large, but for the most part they are predators who are all too willing to destroy the common good so long as their investors and their management can make a killing.
That's why we need a 100% tax on non-productive economic activity.
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