Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream

by Megan Greenwell

A timely work of singular reportage and a damning indictment of the private equity industry told through the stories of four American workers whose lives and communities were upended by the ruinous effects of private equity takeovers.

Private equity runs our country, yet few Americans have any idea how ingrained it is in their lives. Private equity controls our hospitals, daycare centers, supermarket chains, voting machine manufacturers, local newspapers, nursing home operators, fertility clinics, and prisons. The industry even manages highways, municipal water systems, fire departments, emergency medical services, and owns a growing swath of commercial and residential real estate.

Private equity executives, meanwhile, are not only among the wealthiest people in American society, but have grown to become modern-day barons with outsized influence on our politics and legislation. CEOs of firms like Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, and Apollo are rewarded with seats in the Senate and on the boards of the country’s most august institutions; meanwhile, entire communities are hollowed out as a result of their buyouts. Workers lose their jobs. Communities lose their institutions. Only private equity wins.

Acclaimed journalist Megan Greenwell’s Bad Company unearths the hidden story of private equity by examining the lives of four American workers that were devastated as private equity upended their employers and communities: a Toys R Us floor supervisor, a rural doctor, a local newspaper journalist, and an affordable housing organizer. Taken together, their individual experiences also pull back the curtain on a much larger project: how private equity reshaped the American economy to serve its own interests, creating a new class of billionaires while stripping ordinary people of their livelihoods, their health care, their homes, and their sense of security.

In the tradition of deeply human reportage like Matthew Desmond’s Evicted, Megan Greenwell pulls back the curtain on shadowy multibillion dollar private equity firms, telling a larger story about how private equity is reshaping the economy, disrupting communities, and hollowing out the very idea of the American dream itself. Timely and masterfully told, Bad Company is a forceful rebuke of America’s most consequential, yet least understood economic forces.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Economics, Politics, History, Audiobook, Finance

320 pages, ebook

First published June 10, 2025

Reviews

[Traci Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is rage inducing and so good. Really well researched and presented clearly. Private Equity is confusing and I basically knew nothing going in, and Greenwell breaks it down really well. This book is really about the four people's stories more than anything and won't give your the nitty gritty of PE, but if you're newer to the topic and want to understand the impact, this is your book. The stories are compelling (thought I wished for slightly more variety in outcome of her subjects). Short. Clear. Effective.

[Jess Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I continue my streak of reading depressing non-fiction. What can I say, I love a rage-inducing read? I will say the book does end on a positive and hopeful note. However, I still can't help but feel defeated.

This book covers four individuals across the United States whose lives and careers were impacted by the plague that we call "private equity." I was watching a YouTube video by Taylor Lorenz where she's interviewing the author, Megan Greenwell, (https://youtu.be/kRUnsBcHk3E?si=zJmDV...) and saw in the comments a lot of people calling it "vulture capitalism" instead of private equity and that feels more fitting. So that's what I will be calling it in this review. VC will stand for vulture capitalist/capitalism.

CAPITALISM SUCKS. Who is surprised? We follow Liz who was working at ToysRUs, Roger who practiced medicine in rural Wyoming, Natalia, a journalist working for Gannett newspaper, and Loren, an affordable housing organizer. All of their lives have been touched by VC companies and it was always for the worst.

Greenwell does a good job of explaining what VC or private equity is and how it works. How the loans are in their favor, they don't need companies to be profitable because they'll still get paid, and how all that matters is the shareholders and the VC company. Who cares if thousands of employees lose their jobs? Who cares if thousands of people can't access and/or afford healthcare? Who cares if all the news media is owned by like two people? Who the hell cares if there is no affordable housing? The only thing that matters for vulture capitalists aka this entire country is that a few rich people make a ridiculous amount of money.

I think the book being told through real people's lives and experiences made it a better read. You don't just get the facts of how the companies came in and ruined these industries, you get to read about how it affected real people and their families. Greenwell shares the various hardships they went through and how these companies treated them (spoiler alert: like garabge!)

It's enraging and honestly very defeating. The book does end on a positive note, giving hope that there is a possibility for communities to work together and create and own their own various businesses. However, I don't know if it's enough. I won't go down my thought process of why it's not, I'll just say that every day I learn something worse about this place and it doesn't seem that enough people care to work on long-term change. Don't mind me though, just a negative Nancy. (That doesn't mean that EYE don't try to make small changes or am against those who do.)

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great explainer and really good story telling. Weirdly feels sort of essential for understanding the Enshittification of society.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book describes the less desirable aspects of private equity's impact in the American economy by focusing on the stories of four individuals whose lives were directly effected by leveraged buyouts financed through private equity. In the book's Preface the author provides a succinct summary of the book's contents that I've included below:

This book follows four workers: Liz, Roger, Natalia, and Loren. Each of them saw a private equity firm upend one of four businesses—a retail chain, a small-town hospital, a newspaper company, and an apartment complex—and with it, his or her life. Taken together, their individual experiences also pull back the curtain on a much larger project: how private equity reshaped the American economy to serve its own interests, creating a new class of billionaires while stripping ordinary people of their livelihoods, their health care, their homes, and their sense of security. At heart, this is a story about the hollowing out of the American Dream, and the people trying to do something about it.

When the only worth of a local grocery store, a newspaper, or a hospital is the short-term profits it can generate, the company becomes little more than a mine awaiting extraction. Businesses that were once pillars of a society founder and crumble. In the best-case scenario, money that used to flow continuously through town is redirected to a gleaming office tower in Manhattan. In the worst case, grocery stores and newspapers and hospitals disappear altogether. Workers lose their jobs. Customers lose the services they rely on. Little League teams lose their sponsors. Communities lose their institutions.

Only private equity wins.

By the time the book's narrative has given the back story of these four individuals, they seem as close acquaintances to readers of this book, and soon readers will be cheering them on as they read about the struggles of these four individuals as they do battle with the heartless financial behemoths.

Each of these four stories could have been the sole focus of a book, but the author decided to include the four stories to illustrate the variety of businesses private equity has penetrated. My own summary takeaway is that in the eyes of private equity doing leveraged buyouts, if a business can't earn at least twenty percent profit while also paying rent for use of previously owned property and paying large management fees, the business needs to be liquidated (at a profit to private equity financiers). If you are seeking villains in this financial scheme it's easy to blame rich people and bankers, but don't forget to include large State pension funds who profit from investments in leveraged buyout firms. Thus pensioned retirees (and most small investors) share some indirect responsibility.

Is there another side to this story? Defenders of private equity industry say its work is needed and inevitable because the companies it acquires suffer from a “failure to thrive.” Using the examples in this book; (1) Toys R Use was killed by e-commerce, (2) Rural hospitals are threatened due to realities of the economics of modern medicine, (3) Journalism was devastated by the internet, and (4) apartment rents are determined by supply and demand in an environment with a shortage of low income housing. But counter to these arguments one can find contrary examples in those same types of businesses that are thriving by use of creative and expert business practices. All that is required are owners who can see beyond assets and debts.

Are there any changes to the financial and tax laws that would provide incentives for businesses to be operated wisely instead of as vultures? One possibility is the “Stop Wall Street Looting Act” (SWSLA) sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mark Pocan.. This book is quick to point out that passage of this bill is unlikely because of the generous political contritions made to both major political parties by the private equity industry. The proposal to end the “carried interest loophole” is a part of the SWSLA and has more support than the rest of the Act.

[Jojo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eminently readable look at private equity and the industries and places it holds sway over now. This book is uniquely formatted to tell four different and very personal stories before, during, and after private equity bought out an industry relevant to the subject's daily life.

It works well here. This is a largely arcane industry, by intent, and Greenwell does a fantastic job of pointing that out, keeping it interesting, and demystifying the financial details in small bites where it might otherwise have been a slog. I also appreciate this book for its ability to show solutions not as many financial non-fictions do with aspirational what-could-be-done or what-this-may-do but hard examples of what is currently working.

And this book is incredibly current. I was blown away by the recency of what it discusses. This is a book about industry for the past century (necessarily, to show how we got to where we are). It assumes no prior knowledge, explains all it needs to of law, of retail design, of real estate and pensions and so on, and yet has a laser-guided focus on being relevant to today. It succeeds wholly. Many books in this genre are Important as in "I should probably care about this!" but they don't often have the writing to back up more than that feeling of moral obligation. This does. It's a genuinely good read, and an important one.

I really hope this gets a wide audience. It deserves one.

[Roman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m not sure why this is even a book. The intro says it all: the author despises private equity. Okay, great. This could have been summarized in an Instagram post, saving readers $20 and time. This is an opinion, based on only a few real life examples that were picked arbitrarily by the author to prove a point.

The author thinks private equity managers are ruthless and only money oriented. I can tell you that in today’s world one can’t run an investment fund in such manner. Many other considerations are now front and center and benefit mostly renters, employees and stakeholders rather than the actual private equity firm. Next time you hit the gym or the pool in your rental building, think: did the owner of the building spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build this facility because they are greedy and cutting all possible corners to increase their return on investment?

For anyone who think private equity is evil and like to let the whole world know their view, please remember that most public or private pension plans in which our retirement money is parked do invest in private equity products. Why? Because it’s a great way to diversify risks and generate superior returns when other asset classes may do poorly. This is a reality of our modern integrated and interconnected world.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I try to remind myself every day how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to leave the US

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Megan Greenwell is an American journalist who was the first female editor-in-chief of Deadspin and a former editor of Wired.com. Her professional journey gave her a front-row seat to private equity (PE)'s darker impact when her employers were bought out, sparking her interest in this topic. But rather than focusing on her own story, in 2025's Bad Company, Greenwell profiles four people whose lives were upended by these leveraged takeovers: a former Toys R Us employee, a small-town doctor whose hospital was bought out, a journalist caught in newsroom consolidation, and a woman whose apartment building was owned but poorly maintained by a PE firm.

For those unfamiliar, PE firms raise capital from institutional investors and individuals and use it to acquire companies, often via leveraged buyouts. In these transactions, most of the purchase price is financed with debt, which is owned on the acquired company, not the PE firm itself. The goal is to extract short-term profits so PE shareholders benefit, often through cost-cutting, asset stripping, or charging rent to properties the company once owned. When these gambits often fail, the acquired company goes bankrupt, and the PE owners walk away largely unscathed.

Bad Company is well-reported, with the focus on four individual stories helping to underscore the breadth of industries in which PE is enmeshed, and the tangible impact to people's livelihoods and living situations.

I connected with her reporting when thinking of how PE destroyed my favorite craft store, Joann Fabric (1943-2025, RIP), which went out of business earlier this year.

Greenwell's conclusion (as well as mine) is that the outlook for PE reform remains unpromising. Current practices remain entrenched and are unlikely to be regulated or curtailed due to the deep ties the PE industry has with politicians and others in power (as they are often prominent shareholders who financially benefit from PE holdings and business practices).

Further reading:
The Crazies: The Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West by Amy Gamerman | my review - similar themes

My statistics:
Book 258 for 2025
Book 2184 cumulatively

[Ryan E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new learned about this private equity topic. Seemed much more about 4 people’s personal stories than about actual hard-hitting journalism or investigative work that freshly uncovered anything of significance on the biggest PE firms. Glaring lack of insider info or sources.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream, author Megan Greenwell profiles four American workers whose jobs and lives have been impacted by actions taken by Private Equity firms. I appreciated the way Greenwell was able to illuminate the human impact of this industry, especially her account of how private equity has impacted the healthcare system in rural communities.

I believe this book would have benefited from some additional interviews and insights from the Private Equity firms themselves. The pairing of these human stories with the history, business structure, and goals of the Private Equity industry would make a stronger thesis about the role of Private Equity in both the economy as well as the lives of Americans.

Thank you to Net Galley and Dey Street Books for this advanced copy.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad Company is an interesting cross-section of the various industries that private equity firms have decimated at the detriment to everyday Americans. Hospitals, apartment buildings retail stores, and news media were covered as to how these wealthy firms destroy businesses. The book is a good combination of personal stories and a brief history of the private equity business. It is an informative book that makes the reader reflect on how many areas of our society are impacted by private equity.

Thank you to Goodreads and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.

[Ell, Ess Jaeva · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf, 67%--private equity (pe) is evil, the end...

anecdotes, an attempt to humanize the evil, unnecessarily verbose. this book is for those who have zero idea that pe exists or the depths of what it does, then explains, in over a week's worth of bedtime stories, for a 5yo.

copious books/articles explains pe: here, toys-r-us, rural hospital, local newspaper and low income housing anecdotes are subjects... the goal seems, to highlight businesses that affect a larger cross-section of USA, vs pe tactics used on manufacturing or some esoteric industry like banking.

maybe, in the end, this book delves into how the control of health care, media, retail and housing (plus employment therein) by avarice mongers will doom the constitution (life, liberty and pursuit of happiness--etc), doom USA USA USA et al...

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received and read a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley.

A critical book at a critical juncture. Bad Company examines the infiltration of private equity into pretty much any industry you can imagine, but also gives readers anecdotal hope via stories of real people and organizations that have fought back, and sometimes won, against this economic hydra.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

A quick read. I share the opinion of many of the average or lower ratings: no real analysis of larger private equity, poor taste in the author’s decision to share the story of the materialistic ungrateful family abusing their mom/wife to make her s money on clothes, no substantive macro solutions, one note whine of PE is bad, could have been better, etc.

I also think it seems sad to the point of pathetic or needy/greedy that the author felt it necessary to give her own book a five star rating. My rating is lowered to counterbalance that. Not an author I will search to read more.

[Kyla Pelham · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I was going to learn about private equity as a concept, but instead this book was an opinion piece/collection of stories about random people negatively affected by private equity.

[Gabriella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a helpful primer on private equity, told through the eyes of a family struggling to find affordable housing in Northern Virginia, a doctor fighting to save his rural Wyoming town’s only hospital, a newspaper journalist finding her place in a changing industry, and a Toys R Us employee supporting her family and many others. Each of the main “characters” are encouraging guides through a deeply troubling world. In Bad Company, Megan Greenwell achieves the feat of discussing organic solutions that readers have without making any of the proposals seem forced.

🤯 Private equity is everywhere and in everything
I’m glad this book exists, because it helps to describe just how insidious private equity firms are in our modern world. They are taking over EVERY PART OF OUR LIVES, from our homes to our jobs to our art to our healthcare. Up next, apparently now people will be able to invest in private equity companies THROUGH OUR 401(K) PLANS?!?!?! I’m sure this new development just exacerbate their terrible defense that Greenwell shows us throughout this book: “oh, we can’t be bad for [insert whatever part of our world] because we’re helping people save for retirement.” 🤮🤬

But truly, there is no segment of our life that these firms won’t touch. Just while reading this book, I came across several random stories outside of the book about private equity impacting things I care about. Two random examples:

1. The recent proliferation of robots at Bojangles’ (a big issue on NC TikTok) might be tied to the multiple private equity sales of the chain since 2019
2. The Crenshaw Mall fight (a big story in the planning/co-op world a few years back) was about preventing the sale to the Zionist private equity firm, CIM

Speaking of the Zionists, OF COURSE these evil ass IDF veterans would be the start of CIM, a firm which is particularly complicit in residential real estate speculation. CIM is not unique in dragging its residents through endless rounds of price gouging, junk fees, eviction, and egregious property neglect—my former landlord, Greystar, is another private equity firm!!! Since moving to my apartment in 2021, Greystar sold the complex to Bell Partners, who then sold it to Brookstone Properties, a subsidiary of YET ANOTHER private equity firm—like when does it end!

🏘️🏙️ It wouldn’t be me if there wasn’t a housing corner…
This is also a large issue within my industry, specifically when it comes to private equity’s laser focus on mobile home parks, which they are too often able to acquire using government-backed loans intended for the PRESERVATION of affordable housing. Here in North Carolina, there are some many cases of concern with the potential predation on manufactured housing communities. There are great alternative models of resident ownership and zero-displacement redevelopment at manufactured home communities, but these sorts of projects are still way too few and far between, and the resources for them pale in comparison to the endless pockets of private equity firms (and the banks that support them.)

👩🏾‍⚖️ Overall verdict
Okay so as y’all can see, I’ve kind of rambled on about my general thoughts on this topic, and not discussed much about the particular book. That’s because while I did appreciate some of the new information I learned/dots I connected, Bad Company wasn’t nearly as gripping as I thought it would be. I was going into Megan Greenwell’s book having heard it compared to books I loved, like There is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone and Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. We’re just not at that level of achievement…and I wish I’d tempered my expectations.

Some of my problems with Bad Company are stylistic. My friend and buddy reader Adriana shared that they had a hard time with the multiple narratives, as Greenwell interspersed the stories in chronological chapters. This seems to be the accepted format for most narrative nonfiction these days, but I sometimes wonder if another way might also work!!! Telling each person’s story straight through might have allowed for a more cumulative picture about private equity’s role in each industry, while also allowing space for additional chapters to bring in other topics that didn’t neatly fit into the four category narrative.

This is my other problem—I just wanted so much more of the private equity saga!!! Megan Greenwell discusses this in her episode of The Stacks podcast, and in her defense, her publisher made her trim down this book quite significantly. Some of the narrowing down, though, was about her editorial preference to cover individuals who didn’t have the worst private equity stories ever, but instead were able to keep fighting for better outcomes in their families and communities. Unfortunately, this meant that some of the segments of society that private equity is most direly impacting, including nursing homes and autism services, were left undiscussed. Because this industry is so blatantly targeting the people least able to defend themselves, I think we need more coverage showing the whole of this predation. Until that book exists though, this one is a helpful start—and for more in-depth coverage, I’d highly recommend following the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. The author is clearly biased against Private Equity companies and, while I mostly agree with her, for some reason this book didn’t feel like a good manifesto against it.
If you don’t understand how private equity works, it’s a good look at how that type of business generally functions. However, I would make the argument that, historically, most businesses in the US have functioned on a similar level of inhumanity due to the adherence to the Friedman Shareholder Primacy theory that is so prevalent in all US businesses. Companies in the US don’t have the best track record of doing what is best for their communities or their employees. There is a reason unions came into being in physically dangerous industries in the early to mid 1900s, companies were happy to profit while their employees died.
Perhaps private equity feels more nefarious because they don’t necessarily also want to be really good at whatever their business is, they just want to extract profit at all costs and are happy to sell off the remnants after gutting a company, instead of trying to dominate the industry that company is in while innovating and advancing with the times.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story told in 3 parts - toys r us employee, newspaper company, and housing project. I liked how they were very visual examples of how private equity had a hand in their downfall, but also found it intriguing that they kept mentioning one specific firm - not sure if there was a reason for that. Anyway, learned a bit about how loans work in this space and the power of collective action.

[Ashley Cruzen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never thought I’d want to read a book about private equity, let alone end up really liking (?) it but weaving the personal stories of four people and communities directly affected by different industries taken over by private equity made this really digestible.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A great look into how private equity impacts us all

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely forgot to log this. June audiobook for me. Listened to most of this while hiking Mt. Adams and Mt. Madison. Pretty good case against private equity and how it is corroding our social fabric in America.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An often infuriating look at private equity through four individuals--and industries--affected by it. Greenwell gives a basic understanding of what private equity is and how companies operate. I only had a very vague understanding going in, and this lays out how little risk private equity companies have when it buys a struggling company and how much they stand to profit even if they go under. Beholden only to stakeholders and focused on the short-term, employees and customers are often left behind.

The ins and outs of private equity are illustrated through four indivdual's stories: Liz, a Toys 'R Us employee who lost her severance when the company went under after it was taken over; Roger, a former doctor and then hospital board member at a rural Wyoming hospital; Natalia, a journalist at newspapers who were bought out; and Loren, a housing advocate whose apartment complex was owned by a private equity company. The book alternates between each of these viewpoints before, during, and after their buyout by private equity companies. While this offered a great way to personalize the impact and weave in details about how private equity companies operate, by beginning with the "before" stories we are given a lot of details unconnected to the book's overall message and before we've come to know and care about the four individuals, which made it harder for me to get into at first.

These four stories were very well-chosen. Each represents different industries that have been most affected, and have impact beyond the employees of each company. Roger's story illustrates the struggles of rural healthcare that are exacerbated when taken over by a remote company unconnected to the community, where necessary services are cut in favor of the most profitable. Natalia's story shows how the consolidation of media companies, in conjunction with other factors like social media, affects the quality of news coverage. I also like that each of these stories are not just the story of victims, but also of people moved by their experiences to become activists and advocates fighting back. Enlightening and infuriating.

[Erin Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a little bit of background knowledge into private equity, but it basically boils down to passing articles here and there. I knew this book would make me upset, and I knew there would not really be a silver lining. It just boggles my mind how these institutions are legal and how they have so much money no one is really able to stop them.

The book did try to highlight the way some people are fighting back against private equity. The examples all had some sort of positive ending. However, it was hard not to think of the examples in this book as exceptions to rule. Pretty much every politician is funded in some way by private equity, so yeah... nothing is going to be done. It will likely just keep getting worse (but at least there will be shareholder value!)

Pros:
-the 4 separations of before, during and after made the book not feel that long
-the author explained high level financial concepts in a way a beginner like me could understand them

Cons:
-this book made me sad
-the state of the world
-our politicians

I'm not sure I'd recommend this book, unless you are specifically wanting a more in depth stories on this topic. I think you could learn the info by reading articles on private equity without being angry, but the human element of the stories did help me absorb the info better.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent coverage of the role played by private equity in America, if a tad disorganized at times.

The weakest (or missing?) link was her profile of Loren DePina, an exceedingly angry, violent, self-sabotaging WOC who distracts from the broader narrative with her innate narcissism. I found it telling that her parents fled Sao Tome right AFTER the Europeans lost control, yet the daughter never considers moving back to be with the "decolonized" Africans.

[Julie MaGill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I looked forward to reading this, expecting to learn more about private equity. Unfortunately, I could barely finish it. I was thrilled when I finally arrived at page 237 and realized the remaining 57 pages were footnotes and indices. The book reads like a very long college term paper. You will learn nothing other than the author's belief that private equity is bad. It is page after page of uninteresting stories of people affected negatively by private equity investment in their communities. Slow, over-detailed, and painful to read. Happy it's over.

[Kate (kate_reads_) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is exactly the kind of nonfiction I love: deeply researched, but grounded in the lives of real people. Megan Greenwell doesn’t just lay out the mechanics of private equity—she shows us what it feels like to live through its consequences.

The book follows four workers across four industries—a retail employee at Toys R Us, a hospital administrator, a journalist, and a tenant in a private-equity-owned apartment complex. Through their stories, we see just how far-reaching and destructive the private equity model has become. It’s not just retail, where many of us might expect it. It’s our healthcare. Our housing. Even our access to local news. The people harmed by these takeovers aren’t just statistics—they’re neighbors, parents, coworkers. The book makes sure we see them.

One moment that stuck with me: Liz, the Toys R Us employee, has a Geoffrey the Giraffe tattoo—TRU letters and all. That’s the kind of dedication you don’t see often. And when the company collapsed under the weight of private equity debt, that loss wasn’t just financial. It was deeply personal.

The structure of the book works beautifully. So many nonfiction titles read like long articles stretched too far. Bad Company earns its length. The pacing feels intentional, and using four different people across four industries gives the story room to breathe—and hit hard.

One of the most sobering sections lays out how close we came to meaningful reform. Elizabeth Warren proposed legislation that could have changed everything, but it was quickly shut down by lawmakers heavily backed by private equity donations. It’s a sharp, painful reminder that this isn’t just an economic issue. It’s political. And the system, as it stands, is protecting the very firms doing the damage.

This was a tough but important read—and one I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

[Lindsay Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spoiler alert. Bad for businesses. Bad for consumers. Great for billionaires!

[Ebony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read. Easy to digest. Excellent case studies. Great bibliography.

[Kallie · Rating 4 out of 5]

probably five stars but it made me mad so only four. can someone please tell me one good thing capitalism has accomplished as its end, not just a happy accident along the way? sigh.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent information, extremely well researched, and the Toys r Us example was fascinating. The rest was a bit of a slog, I skimmed the end.