From the Telegraph
One of the lessons from the banking crisis is that when one of these deals comes along that the boss of a giant firm says must be done, or else we are all doomed beyond doubt, it is well worth saying: "Hold on a minute. We've got some questions you must answer."
Senior capitalists who cannot see this are, once again, doing the work of the resurgent anti-capitalists. The biggest risk to capitalism is posed, unintentionally, by some of its own leaders and their supporters who argue that if a deal can be done then it must always be done, hang the consequences and you must be a communist if you are sceptical about the wisdom of institutional investors or ever consider the public interest.
The problem with Iain Martin's article is that while there were some bad mergers and acquisitions, it wasn't mergers and acquisitions that created the lending crisis. Northern Rock managed to collapse without doing a single merger after demutualistion. And while there were were 16 UK clearing banks in 1960 and 5 in 2010, it's also the case that there were only 5 in the mid 1980s.
And what no-one has been able to explain is what the "public interest" is regarding the Pfizer/Astra Zeneca takeover. What's the worst case? Pfizer move all the jobs to America? So, I get the next cancer or erectile dysfunction drug designed by people who say sidewalk instead of pavement? Sorry, but so fucking what?
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