The last part was of course a joke. I yell at my portfolio manager no matter what he does. But no serious investor should ever have "recovering losses" anywhere in their strategy or consideration. Either you think the price is going up or down, and then you consider fluctuations. And if you are happy to wait and believe it's going up, then don't complain about "being stuck".

> One person stuck isn't much of an article, sure.

Neither are 10 000 people being "stuck" because they can't decide to get out of the car or not. Or stuck in front of the fridge deciding what they want. If they want to get unstuck, it's up to them.

> I promise you, the PE ecosystem impacts the general public. Nearly every dentist, plumber, electrician, and vet in my area is PE owned these days. That's a lot of eggs in a basket.

Yes, because "private equity" is an extremely broad term. I wouldn't expect your local dentist or plumber to be listed on the stock exchange.

What exactly is the problem for me or anybody else reading the article that some PE investors weren't able to get the return they had hoped for on their investments? Should I feel sorry for them? Should I send them part of my paycheck to ease their wounds?

> What exactly is the problem for me or anybody else reading the article that some PE investors weren't able to get the return they had hoped for on their investments?

A widespread contagion in the industry would wipe out significant parts of the service sector, which we humans rely upon.

> Should I feel sorry for them? Should I send them part of my paycheck to ease their wounds?

The PE firms? Absolutely not. Fuck them.

But as with the CDO mess, the damage won't stay with the Bain Capital types. They'll all be fine; it's the consumer who gets fucked.

As the article notes, that includes things like pension funds. Your 401k, probably, too.

What we should do is prevent this wealth transfer from the poorest to the richest shit from continuing to happen over and over again.