The Locusts of Private Foreign Investment

From The Smart Economist [see the blog ad to the right to sign up for their free newsletter]

MUENTEFERING ON PRIVATE-EQUITY INVESTMENT

Franz Muentefering, Chairman of the German ruling Social Democratic Party, launched an attack to foreign investors who seek what he described as "short-term gains" by comparing private-equity firms to the biblical plague of locusts that descended on Egypt, stripping it of vegetation.

- True, private-equity firms can be ruthless, but they strip underperforming company managers of their jobs, rather than the economic flora in foreign countries.