Posted on 12/04/2019 5:43:17 AM PST by gattaca
Fox News Host Tucker Carlson dedicated a segment of his show Tuesday night to torching the Wall Street billionaire Paul Singer. Carlson’s show featured an investigation into how hedge funds, like the the one Singer manages, have destroyed American towns and economies for the sake of lining their pockets.
Carlson described how Singer and his hedge fund Elliott Management has made billions of dollars from their style of “vulture capitalism,” exploiting financially distressed countries and American companies.
“Elliott Management has made billions by buying large stakes in American companies, then firing workings, driving up short-term share prices, and in some cases taking government bailouts,” he said.
Carlson focuses on one town in particular, Sidney, Nebraska, where the longtime headquarters of the mega-sporting goods store Cabela’s is located. After buying a stake in Cabela’s, Singer pushed the company to sell, despite the company’s profit of more than $1 billion a year.
“One year after Singer enters the equation, Bass Pro Shops announced the purchase of Cabela’s. The company’s stock price surged. Within a week, literally a week, Paul Singer cashed out,” Carlson said.
Singer’s hedge fund made at least $90 million at the time, but the town of Sidney lost nearly 2,000 jobs. Property values collapsed, trapping people in the dying town with no job and no way to sell their homes. Wall street investors cashed in as Sidney collapsed.
A former longtime Cabela’s employee told Fox News that she bawled when she heard the news of the company’s buy out and that it took her five months to find a new job, one that’s “not even close” to as good as her former Cabela’s job.
“I hope Paul Singer is proud of what he did,” said one Sidney business owner. “If money is that big of a god to him, he’s a pretty sick human being.”
Fox News reached out to Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska to comment on the desolation in Sidney, but his office did not respond to Fox producers. During his 2014 Senate run, Sasse received the maximum donation acceptable from Singer.
I don't know, part of the BPS shopping experience is just walking thru their stores and looking at all the stuff you would like to buy.......
I have one near me and the only couple of times I've been in it, I've walked out with an item that was never even on my shopping list.......LOL!
Used to be BPS was the best place to buy fishing tackle, and Cabela’s had the best hunting cloths and boots.
Now they do nothing well.
BPS has had an option on a prime location near me for years. They haven’t exercised it. I suspect are they feeling the heat big time from Amazon and very nervous about the future of big box retail.
This can cut two ways. It was because of Cabellas that the town boomed. Before that, it was just like it is now, minus all the improvements. The townspeople need to take advantage of the improvements that the Cabellas boom brought them and run with it. Also, even though the townpeople lost, all those retired teachers and other retirees who had this stock in their portfolios came out winners.
Do you think Cornhuskers can see the real Sasse?
Not if they keep selling all those cheap counterfeit Chinese knock-off products. That is what is going to kill Amazon.
BPS is not the only one peddling Chinese crap.
Five or six clothing catalogs have arrived here this season.
Every one has “imported” outdoor clothing.
You can guess where its imported from...
Reminds me of the hit off-Broadway play Other People’s Money.
LOL.
Since Amazon bought Whole Foods, you can see the decline. Can they do anything right except sell books? Last week, there were no white potatoes available!
True story. After my purchase, I was sent a survey wanting to know about my buying experience.
I told them that BPS was a mediocre clothing store, with none of the high end equipment I needed.
I told them I use to drive 20+ mile to Cabela’s even though BPS was only about 6 miles away. I said now Cabela’s is as mediocre as BPS.
Dick Cabela must be spinning in his grave.
In their defense, the customer service of Cabela’s did carry over to BPS.
Yeah, “maximizing shareholder value” is all that matters. To hell with the people, to hell with the country.
And so-called “conservatives” wonder why they are so despised.
I once worked t a company that sold jackets, and other racing apparel. The landed cost—including tariffs, etc, on each jacket was $19.60. The retail was $80. A 400% markup.
I’ve only been to BPS once, when they opened up in Detoilet.
I got a great deal on a gun and never went back, because...it’s in Detoilet.
Cabela’s is closer but they suck swamp water now that BPS bought them.
Hedge fund are politically easy to scapegoat. The fact is that small town America began its decline long before hedge funds were created, as small towns were portrayed in the media as a place of racism and hidden evil. But I’ve seen dying small towns revive as retirees and people who work at home seek to escape high-cost, crime ridden urban areas and enjoy the benefits of community. Quaint is now the in thing.
Vulture Capitalism bump for later.....
The one I mentioned opened in 2017 and it is 7 miles east of me.
There's another one about 25 miles NW of me......
Some co-ops work.
Cabot Creamery and Vermont Electric Co-op, in Vermont.
They were around before the takeover of Vermont by leftists from NY, CT, etc.
But overall, you are right.
Bass pro sucks compared to cabelas.
BPS is gonna lose because amazon sells cheap Chinese crap? Think that allll the way through. BPS isn’t exactly a bastion of America first.
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