Private equity firms are just vastly less regulated than other parts of the finance industry. They're supplanting investment banks in a lot of areas like private credit, which is this alternative to the stock market and almost by definition is more opaque. The challenge that we've got is it's not that these things are inherently more risky. It's that we don't even know what's going on here simply because we don't have regulations around it yet.
If you want to maximize the value of your home for decades, you might update the kitchen. But if your time frame is one week, then you might burn down the house. Brendan Ballou is a federal prosecutor and special counsel at the Department of Justice, where he led the antitrust division’s work on private equity. He's also authored a new book, “Plunder, Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America.” Ricky Mulvey caught up with him to talk about: - The techniques many private equity companies use to generate short-term returns - A key misunderstanding about the fall of in-person retailers - Private equity’s impact on medical billing, bakeries, and insurance Companies discussed: CG, KKR, BX Host: Ricky Mulvey Guest: Brendan Ballou Engineer: Tim Sparks
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