Techlash: the fall of the Faangs – FT

FANGs haunted by worries over a “Splinternet.”

Fana is very good.  Her book, Makers and Takers: How Wall Street Destroyed Main Street,  is a must read,  especially the chapter on how private equity, including the current Secretary of Treasury, dubbed The Foreclosure King,  scooped up hundreds of thousands of homes in foreclosure and are now gouging renters.   

What is wrong with this picture?

Many of these same “foreclosure queens” would have gone under if not for the big bailouts in 2008-09, and are now using their market power in rental housing to reduce the real income of thousands of consumers.   One of the reasons why the economy teeters.

Moreover, they played a big role in the housing crisis ripping through much of the country today, taking a huge supply of homes out of the market driving up prices to unsustainable levels.   The fundamental problem with the housing market is that prices are too high and need to come down.

The mistake was not the bailout, in our opinion,  it was who the government bailed out.    It helps to better understand the coming of America’s political Black Swan in 2016.

Fana also trashes Apple and Tim Cook in the book for their pursuit of financial engineering (buybacks) over electrical engineering (investment and innovation).

It’s a good read, folks.

The FT’s Rana Foroohar explains how a year of scandals over privacy, data breaches, and election meddling have weighed on the tech sector.

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