Think Twice Finance

The Puget Sound Energy Bid: “Macquarie Group, Let Me Introduce You to The Public Council Section of the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Washington.”

Macquarie Group is trying to do a thing that it has done with notable success over the past few decades. Buy a corporation that provides a service essential to the Commonweal through thick and thin, leverage it, and then sell it off to investors. Macquarie has been successful doing this for many, many reasons that other investment bankers don’t get. I am too much of an admirer of Macquarie to explain the part that I understand. I oppose financial transparency in the current popular form because I don’t want to see the few truly creative investment banks being stripped of their profits.

They have been opposed in this effort by The Public Council Section of the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Washington.” The reason: “Customers appear to get little or nothing in return for the added risk [of Macquarie’s added debt.]”

I’ve got a solution. Nobody has suggested it because Macquarie is too polite (or street smart) and the PCSAGASW is too disinterested in the actual welfare of Washington consumers to think of it. The solution: Give the proceeds of the sale to the taxpayers.