Immediately, I’m speaking with Megan Greenwell, a former prime editor at Wired and Deadspin, about her new ebook Dangerous Firm: Non-public Fairness and the Loss of life of the American Dream. It comes out on June 10th, and it’s a searing account of how non-public fairness goes far past impacting failing companies and deeply impacts and transforms the lives of on a regular basis Individuals.
Decoder may be very a lot a present in regards to the techniques and frameworks that designate tech, coverage, and enterprise, and which means we’ve talked about non-public fairness a variety of instances on the present. Non-public fairness is in every single place throughout the enterprise panorama, regardless that its huge affect on how so many corporations function is fairly hidden from view.
However when you see it, you begin to discover it in every single place, and it’s extremely validating to listen to that so many individuals have had related experiences with corporations managed by non-public fairness. I do know this, as a result of it’s in our numbers and the suggestions we get right here on Decoder — our 2023 episode with lawyer and author Brendan Ballou about his ebook on non-public fairness, Plunder, is one among our hottest episodes.
Megan’s curiosity in non-public fairness got here from her expertise as editor-in-chief of Deadspin, the well-known and now-defunct sports activities and tradition web site. Deadspin was a part of Gawker, and Gawker was taken over by a private equity firm called Great Hill Partners, which started to instantly micromanage Deadspin’s content. That was when Megan first realized that the objectives and monetary outcomes of a non-public fairness agency have been very disconnected from the objectives and monetary outcomes of the businesses it had taken over.
Megan’s ebook is a deep dive into the non-public fairness business, as expressed in 4 components of the financial system: retail, media, housing, and — perhaps essentially the most maddening of all of them — healthcare. My household has plenty of docs in it, and I’ve heard a lot about how non-public fairness has modified healthcare within the US. You’ll hear Megan join the dots between the financialization of healthcare and the poor experiences many individuals have with healthcare right this moment.
We additionally spent a while speaking in regards to the historical past of personal fairness, and the throughline from the New York Metropolis actual property world that gave delivery to Donald Trump all the best way to the non-public fairness business of right this moment. I feel you’ll discover there’s a shocking quantity of historical past right here that basically does assist clarify not simply how the incentives of finance have come to dominate the American lifestyle, but in addition the way it’s seeped into the very best ranges of the federal government. Maybe most surprisingly, you’ll hear Megan take nice pains to distinguish non-public fairness from enterprise capital, which may be very totally different — and with very totally different issues.
I all the time actually take pleasure in speaking to different editors, particularly about one thing they’re so inquisitive about. Let me know what you consider this one. I think you should have lots to say.
In the event you’d wish to learn extra on what we talked about on this episode, try the hyperlinks under:
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