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United Deal Shows Private Equity's Alive -- and Flailing

By Jim Cramer

 About this article:
 Oh shoot, United Rentals and Cerberus. Well, isn't that great. The private equity firm that is causing the most problems out there with this darned Chrysler deal is now out there buying the most cyclical company imaginable, a heavy equipment rental company, United Rentals, long a favorite short of hedge funds when they want to bet on a downturn. (I ought to know, I thought that shorting Brad Jacobs and United Rentals was an annuity when I was back at my hedge fund, and I have the returns to prove it.) I say "oh shoot" because either these private-equity guys are Supermen oblivious to everything that is happening in the economy (did anyone there read the Caterpillar release about domestic business?) or they are just plain morons who just go real lucky. I am beginning to think they are the latter, just another group of lucky hotshots who...

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