Plunder

Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America

De: Brendan Ballou

Narrado por: Kevin Kenerly

The authoritative exposé of private equity: what it is, how it kills businesses and jobs, how the government helps, and how we stop it

Private equity surrounds us. Firms like Blackstone, Carlyle, and KKR are among the largest employers in America and hold assets that rival those of small countries. Yet few understand what these firms are or how they work.

In Plunder, Brendan Ballou explains how private equity has reshaped American business by raising prices, reducing quality, cutting jobs, and shifting resources from productive to unproductive parts of the economy. Ballou vividly illustrates how many private equity firms buy up retailers, medical practices, prison services, nursing-home chains, and mobile-home parks, among other businesses, using little of their own money to do it and avoiding debt and liability for their actions. Forced to take on huge debts and pay extractive fees, companies purchased by private equity firms are often left bankrupt, or shells of their former selves, with consequences to communities that long depended on them.

Perhaps most startling is Ballou’s insight into how this is happening with the active support of various arms of the government. But, as Ballou reveals in an agenda for reigning in the industry, private equity can be stopped from wreaking further havoc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“As shorthand for the crazy unfairness of financialized modern capitalism, more accurate than Wall Street or hedge fund is private equity—the state-of-the-art corporate-takeover mode that has brought predatory greed and ruthlessness to new levels, wrecking companies and workers’ lives as a matter of course. Plunder is the right word, as Brendan Ballou lucidly explains in his infuriating, illuminating, essential book. And his practical plan for reining in this monstrous new centerpiece of our system makes total sense.”—Kurt Andersen, author of Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America

“As private equity has risen to seize everything from nursing homes to clothing retailers to private prisons to our retirement savings, Ballou has written a cogent and indispensable book on this strange financial world. Ballou shows how these modern-day robber barons not only target the poor and serve themselves, but also bore into the foundations of our economy and society, weakening it for everyone. He ends with a stirring roadmap for reform.”
—Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica, author of The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives

“Private equity might be the biggest economic story of the century, and yet, so few people understand what it is or how it’s crippling our economy and our democracy. In Plunder, Ballou tells a complicated story clearly and explains how private equity shapes your life and importantly, how it can be stopped. For anyone who wants to understand why our economy has become so broken and so unjust—and for anyone who wants to fix it—Plunder is required reading.”—Zephyr Teachout, professor of law, Fordham Law School, and author of Break 'em Up: Recovering our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money

“Plunder offers a clear and critical analysis of the private-equity industry. Ballou shows how some private-equity firms have ruined retail businesses, made housing more expensive, reduced the quality of health care and nursing homes, and wreaked havoc on families. If you’re interested in understanding the hidden sources of our economic problems—and in fixing them—read this book.”—Ganesh Sitaraman, professor of law, Vanderbilt University, and author of The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution

Lack of detail.

This book goes into great detail about the who, what, when, where and why re: private equity but never details the how. How did private equity buy Toys R Us or Friendly for example, force them to sell their real estate and load them up with debt? Perhaps this is obvious to those working in finance but I bought this book to learn about the nuts and bolts of the industry and still am in the dark. Don’t explain just what they do, explain exactly how they do it.

This is an Insightful book

This is a great book from a knowledgeable source. Worth a listen to better understand the radical transformation of the finance industry over the past 15 years.

eye ipening

Very informative and with clear call to actions. This was a huge blindspot for me and grateful that it was pushed my way.

Turn and Run From PE, if you Can!

This book confirmed a lot of what I have observed and has mirrored what has happened to my consulting firm that I retired from and was recently purchased be a private equity owned firm.

Excellent

The only way it could be better is by spending more time of the standard counter arguments. For the Kool-aid drinkers in the industry, exhaustive examples will never be enough.