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Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Stop the Steal: Revisiting Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America (with Brendan Ballou)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.81.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Private equity is looting America by exploiting vulnerable companies and extracting profits at the expense of workers, communities, and the broader economy. They've been buying up companies in every industry in the U.S. Economy and stripping them for parts. These massive firms have vast holdings across critical industries essential to the health and well-being of everyday people. Some recent examples include private equity's role in education, utilities, housing, and even in the healthcare sector, which led to the closure of hospitals and nursing homes, endangering public health. We thought it would be a good time to revisit this episode from 2023 with Brendan Ballou, a federal prosecutor and the author of Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America. In this episode, he explains how we can stop private equity’s plan to pillage America. This episode originally aired on July 25, 2023. Brendan Ballou is a federal prosecutor and served as Special Counsel for Private Equity in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. Previously, he worked 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. Twitter: @brendanballou Further reading:  Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America The Guardian - Slash and burn: is private equity out of control? Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics Substack: The Pitch

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey Pitchfork listeners, we occasionally villainize private equity on this podcast,

0:06.0

which I know may seem weird considering we're billionaire funded ourselves,

0:10.4

but you know, the real world is the real world and private equity has played a big

0:16.3

role in driving up the costs of housing, health care, pharmaceuticals, and other core products.

0:24.6

So we thought we would, and so we thought this might be a good time

0:28.8

to revisit a conversation we had in 2023

0:32.3

with Brendan Ballou about private equities plan to

0:36.4

pillage America. We hope it enrages you as much as it enrages us.

0:41.4

The rising inequality and growing as much as it enrages us.

0:43.1

The rising inequality and growing political instability

0:46.3

that we see today are the direct result of decades

0:50.3

of bad economic theory.

0:51.8

It's time to build our economy from the bottom up and from the

0:54.3

middle out, not the top down. Middle out economics is the answer. Because Wall Street

1:00.4

didn't build this country. Great middle class built this country.

1:04.2

The more the middle class thrives,

1:06.3

the better the economy is for everyone,

1:09.5

even rich people like me. This is Pitch Fork Economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy

1:22.4

from the middle out.

1:24.0

Welcome to the show. I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.

1:35.0

I'm David Goldstein, Senior Fellow at Civic Ventures.

1:40.0

Goldie today on the podcast we get to talk about a subject that's really near and

...

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