PLUNDER

A scathing look at how the scourge of private equity is increasing poverty, inequality, and economic decline, how the government is helping them do this, and what to do about it.

Plunder is a startling investigation into the poorly understood, powerful force of private equity that is poised to reshape the economy in this decade the way that big tech did in the last decade, and subprime lenders the decade before that. And importantly, private equity is doing all of this not just with the acquiescence but the active support of the government.

If you've ever wondered why nursing homes are getting worse, why there is a housing shortage, why large newspapers have gone downhill and local investigative reporting has dried up, Plunder provides the reason why and provides a reform agenda spelling out how this industry can be stopped from wreaking further havoc.

Private equity firms buy up companies with little to no investment, forcing them to take on huge debts and pay extractive fees, often wringing the life blood out of them, leaving them bankrupt or a shell of their former selves. Private equity's impact extends to the communities that have long depended on now- eviscerated companies for employment and prosperity.

Through vivid storytelling about the industries that private equity firms is reshaping, the institutions helping them, and key players such as Blackstone and Steve Schwarzman; Sun Capital and Mark Lederman; Apollo and Jan Clayton and Leon Black, Carlyle and David Rubenstein, Ballou's revelatory explanation of how private equity works shines a light on a part of Wall Street that is hastening the financialization of the economy and increasing the power of banks and other institutions over companies that make and sell tangible products.

Brendan Ballou, a special counsel at the Department of Justice, was part of the original team that brought suit in U.S. v. Google and leads the Department's work on private equity and interlocking directorates. Previously, he served in private practice, and before that, in the National Security Division of the Justice Department, where he advised the White House on counterterrorism and other policies. He graduated from Columbia University and Stanford Law School.