And then there’s the example of Toys “R” Us, a foundational brand to so many millennial childhoods. In 2005, Toys “R” Us was bought by a collection of private equity firms, which loaded the company with debt; by 2007, 97 percent of its profits were directed toward paying down the interest.9 In practice, that meant no time for innovation, or remodeling stores, or devising new strategies to compete with competitors. The private equity owners cut the fat, and then they cut down to the bone, and then, in 2017, the company went bankrupt. The stores were liquidated. Every employee was let go. “A lot
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