PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS’ INFLUENCE
“The whole subject
of private equity has been woefully undercovered. Firms like Carlyle [Group], Blackstone, and
KKR have
been the main
force behind the
flood of
mergers and acquisitions of
recent years. News accounts have
focused far more
on the market
effects
of these deals than
on their implications
for employment, the concentration of
wealth, and community welfare. Back in 2012, such factors
were closely analyzed in
connection with Mitt Romney's work at the private equity company Bain Capital, but since then interest in
private equity has waned even as the field has boomed. Naked Capitalism. an influential financial blog, recently [2015] a long post about how private equity companies ‘are far more obviously connected to an undue concentration of wealth at the expense of workers and communities’ than are CDOs (collaterized debt obligations) and the other finance instruments that once drew such attention. Though the top one percent
of the one percent "consists disproportionately of private equity and hedge fund principals,’ the blog ruefully
connection with Mitt Romney's work at the private equity company Bain Capital, but since then interest in
private equity has waned even as the field has boomed. Naked Capitalism. an influential financial blog, recently [2015] a long post about how private equity companies ‘are far more obviously connected to an undue concentration of wealth at the expense of workers and communities’ than are CDOs (collaterized debt obligations) and the other finance instruments that once drew such attention. Though the top one percent
of the one percent "consists disproportionately of private equity and hedge fund principals,’ the blog ruefully
lamented, few of its
readers
seem interested. The
same could be said
of the press.”
Massing, Michael, ‘How to Cover the One Percent,’ The New
York Review, January 14, 2016, pp: 74-76.
