Billionaires in the News: Billionaire Ray Dalio, CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, is worried that capitalism might not be working for the majority of people. So, he wrote a long essay about it and posted it to LinkedIn like any normal person would. Then he did interviews about the letter with NPR and 60 Minutes. The letter is a kind of Rosetta Stone that starkly lays out the peculiarities of the billionaire mindset. We didn’t want to get bogged down in a close reading here, but we’re planning a much more developed analysis of it in the near future. Spoiler alert: The letter is a defense of the status quo that targets people who see themselves as part of the “rational center.” Isn’t it funny how “political centrism,” the machine that brought you both Ray Dalio and the crises of capitalism he describes, is still assumed to be where levelheadedness and practicality reside in American politics? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-how-capitalism-needs-reformed-parts-1-2-ray-dalio?trk=portfolio_article-card_titleThis week’s census entries (@ Episode notes:I didn’t explain the Saudi/Blackstone infrastructure investing deal very clearly, so here’s an article that spells things out. I suggest making sure you read the “skipping deals” and “royal privacy” sections of the article. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-22/how-blackstone-landed-20-billion-from-saudis-for-infrastructureHere’s a link to Josh Kosman’s book on PE: https://www.amazon.com/Buyout-America-Private-Destroying-American/dp/B005DI8VK0