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The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself
'FINANCIAL JOURNALISM AT ITS BEST . . . UTTERLY TERRIFYING' PETER OBORNE
'PART WAKE-UP CALL, PART FINANCIAL THRILLER' SHAMI CHAKRABARTI
A thrilling, eye-opening investigation into private equity, a secretive wing of the finance industry that is so relentlessly destructive, it could have been created to undermine our way of life
You don't know their names, but they own the house you rent. They own your hospitals, nurseries and care homes, the media you consume and the companies you work for. They even own the tools your union uses to fight back. Business is a contest - and they say their people are built to win. But when does competition become a struggle to the death?
For decades, private equity firms have infiltrated every corner of modern life. Wielding debt as a weapon, they push vital services into crisis. Their cover that this is merely the 'creative destruction' essential to growth. Old-school capitalists say they're dismantling everything that made our economies work.
In The Asset Class, reporter Hettie O'Brien penetrates a hidden empire of billion-dollar deals and covert financial warfare. From Copenhagen to San Francisco, Barcelona to the Yorkshire Dales, she follows the money, the ideological roots and the trail of destruction. What she finds is private equity isn't just reshaping the economy - it's selling out the foundations of Western society.
The new owners think they can hide in the shadows. But the owned are fighting back.
'DEFTLY LIFTS THE CURTAIN ON A MURKY WORLD OF GREED AND DESTRUCTION' DANNY DORLING
'DAZZLING' HA-JOON CHANG
'ESSENTIAL' GRACE BLAKELEY
'WILD' JOLYON MAUGHAM
'PART WAKE-UP CALL, PART FINANCIAL THRILLER' SHAMI CHAKRABARTI
A thrilling, eye-opening investigation into private equity, a secretive wing of the finance industry that is so relentlessly destructive, it could have been created to undermine our way of life
You don't know their names, but they own the house you rent. They own your hospitals, nurseries and care homes, the media you consume and the companies you work for. They even own the tools your union uses to fight back. Business is a contest - and they say their people are built to win. But when does competition become a struggle to the death?
For decades, private equity firms have infiltrated every corner of modern life. Wielding debt as a weapon, they push vital services into crisis. Their cover that this is merely the 'creative destruction' essential to growth. Old-school capitalists say they're dismantling everything that made our economies work.
In The Asset Class, reporter Hettie O'Brien penetrates a hidden empire of billion-dollar deals and covert financial warfare. From Copenhagen to San Francisco, Barcelona to the Yorkshire Dales, she follows the money, the ideological roots and the trail of destruction. What she finds is private equity isn't just reshaping the economy - it's selling out the foundations of Western society.
The new owners think they can hide in the shadows. But the owned are fighting back.
'DEFTLY LIFTS THE CURTAIN ON A MURKY WORLD OF GREED AND DESTRUCTION' DANNY DORLING
'DAZZLING' HA-JOON CHANG
'ESSENTIAL' GRACE BLAKELEY
'WILD' JOLYON MAUGHAM
248 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 9, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
August 21, 2026
Edit: I have written a lengthy (7.5k words) "Appreciation" of this book over on my Substack:In The Asset Class, journalist Hettie O’Brien provides a useful, condensed history of the private equity ‘industry’, followed by a number of damning case studies, which further fills out the picture of a very, very late capitalism which is most adept not at producing value, but cannibalizing it.
https://wdclarke.substack.com/p/the-a...
Both engagingly-written and well-researched, O'Brien turns out to be an adept and quietly impassioned cicerone/consociate on this not-so-Grand Tour through our crumbling neighbourhood, where she astutely draws our attention to what's happening behind the scenes to what we formerly took for granted as belonging to (or at least adjacent to) something called the ‘Public Good’—this (former) council estate, that vet practice, our nan's care home, our once-trustworthy water supply...
[n. b. I discovered this book by listening to the ever dependable Doug Henwood interview Ms O'Brien at length about her research, and I highly recommend that you begin by going to the link below... Doug is a veteran economic journalist and author, as well as long host of his own show on Berkeley Public Radio (also podcast), which focuses on interviewing leading thinkers and journalists in the fields of economics, culture, and politics about their books.
https://kpfa.org/episode/behind-the-n... ]
April 13, 2026
Brilliant work by Hettie O’Brien. Well researched and well written, the book focuses on private equity’s encroachment into social infrastructure and how this exploits the very people most dependent on these essential services. It was difficult not to feel infuriated throughout the book.
September 28, 2026
I'd happily give this 6 out 5 stars if I could. Would recommend to anyone and everyone.
This is a book about the Private Equity industry, which emerged in the 1980s and has become a major feature of our contemporary economy. Hettie O'Brien makes a rock solid left wing argument about rentier capitalism which has plenty in common with, say, Yanis Varoufakis. But whereas Varoufakis is writing for a consciously left wing audience, O'Brien is speaking directly to an FT reading one. Reading this, I felt optimistic that it might inspire genuine change, rather than feeling slightly despairing about a left taking to itself.
It avoids all unnecessary complexity, especially as the stated aim of the book is to demystify an extremely complex and mysterious sector. Difficult details are broken down into bitesize explanations, with plenty of analogy and anecdote to turn abstract ideas into comprehensible ones. O'Brien's background as a journalist rather than academic economist is invaluable in this regard.
The narrative has a strong sense of history, and tells a version of the classic "history of neoliberalism" starting in the breakdown of the post-war consensus; turbocharging under Thatcher and Blair; and entering into a sort of perma-crisis after 2008. But instead of sweeping political economy, Hettie O'Brien tells the story through the changing worldview and business strategies of financiers, which helps embed a clearly ideological narrative into an irrefutable and evidence based argument.
The Asset Class also offers a useful development on the story of post-war capitalism. It's been clear since 2015/16, and certainly since the pandemic, that we're in a new economic and political paradigm different from the post-2008 austerity decade. This book usefully identifies PE as a central agent changing the behaviour of capitalism.
The central thesis struck me as similar to Karl Polanyi's Great Transformation. O'Brien never references this one (she is careful to avoid referencing any political theory), but her core argument follows Polanyi's, i.e. that the more unrestrained markets become, the more they stretch the fabric of the society they are embedded in, and the greater the build-up of tension in the system in the opposite direction.
The only thing that bugged me a bit about the book was O'Brien's occasional references to Soviet economics, which were both smug and poorly informed, and formed part of a confused narrative that Private Equity is somehow the dark mirror of the bureaucratic Soviet economy, as opposed to its complete inverse. It felt like the author was only doing this to position herself as a mainstream commentator and ingratiate herself with Hayekian nutjobs, but it was superfluous to an otherwise excellent narrative.
That element to one side, The Asset Class is intelligible, informative, and timely.
This is a book about the Private Equity industry, which emerged in the 1980s and has become a major feature of our contemporary economy. Hettie O'Brien makes a rock solid left wing argument about rentier capitalism which has plenty in common with, say, Yanis Varoufakis. But whereas Varoufakis is writing for a consciously left wing audience, O'Brien is speaking directly to an FT reading one. Reading this, I felt optimistic that it might inspire genuine change, rather than feeling slightly despairing about a left taking to itself.
It avoids all unnecessary complexity, especially as the stated aim of the book is to demystify an extremely complex and mysterious sector. Difficult details are broken down into bitesize explanations, with plenty of analogy and anecdote to turn abstract ideas into comprehensible ones. O'Brien's background as a journalist rather than academic economist is invaluable in this regard.
The narrative has a strong sense of history, and tells a version of the classic "history of neoliberalism" starting in the breakdown of the post-war consensus; turbocharging under Thatcher and Blair; and entering into a sort of perma-crisis after 2008. But instead of sweeping political economy, Hettie O'Brien tells the story through the changing worldview and business strategies of financiers, which helps embed a clearly ideological narrative into an irrefutable and evidence based argument.
The Asset Class also offers a useful development on the story of post-war capitalism. It's been clear since 2015/16, and certainly since the pandemic, that we're in a new economic and political paradigm different from the post-2008 austerity decade. This book usefully identifies PE as a central agent changing the behaviour of capitalism.
The central thesis struck me as similar to Karl Polanyi's Great Transformation. O'Brien never references this one (she is careful to avoid referencing any political theory), but her core argument follows Polanyi's, i.e. that the more unrestrained markets become, the more they stretch the fabric of the society they are embedded in, and the greater the build-up of tension in the system in the opposite direction.
The only thing that bugged me a bit about the book was O'Brien's occasional references to Soviet economics, which were both smug and poorly informed, and formed part of a confused narrative that Private Equity is somehow the dark mirror of the bureaucratic Soviet economy, as opposed to its complete inverse. It felt like the author was only doing this to position herself as a mainstream commentator and ingratiate herself with Hayekian nutjobs, but it was superfluous to an otherwise excellent narrative.
That element to one side, The Asset Class is intelligible, informative, and timely.
September 24, 2026
What I learned:
- Understanding Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs): LBOs, i.e. what PE firms do, is much like flipping a house, except using companies and debts. A scenario: You want to buy a mansion for $10M. You front $1M of your own money and borrow the remaining $9M from banks. You buy the mansion, and then start to flip it. You get some money back by selling off its assets, e.g. some of its land, the servant’s quarters and firing the cook that comes with the mansion. You flip it by renovating → increasing its worth. Then, 5 years or so later, you sell the mansion for $20M. You pay the bank back its $9M plus interest and have the remaining $11M to split amongst your investors. Very nice. (From this youtube video).
- Now, why not just front the initial $10M yourself? Why even take out a loan in the first place? According to this scenario, if you front the $10M yourself, you get a 100% return. If you front only $1M using your investor’s funds, you get a 1000% return - much higher. And crucially, if you use less of your investors funds, you have tied up much less of their money and have more to work with. I.e. one could make 10 such deals in the same timespan if we simply use loans.
Also, see below - if the company does go bankrupt, that company has to repay the debts to the bank, not the PE firm, so there is much lower risk here. The PE firm can technically extract profits and walk out before the company itself goes bankrupt.
- Why is this a problem for the working class? For one, those employed by companies that were acquired in LBOs are often fired or benefits are slashed in order to reduce the company’s costs to service the PE’s debts. Additionally, the debt is placed on the acquired company’s books, not on the PE firm’s! So the company is now responsible for flipping itself and dramatically increasing its value.
- Some examples of the catastrophic effects of PE are in housing and elderly care homes.
- Sale and leaseback techniques are another way PEs service their debts quickly. They take an existing company, like a care home, and split it into smaller companies, like an operating company ‘opco’ and a property company ‘propco’. The opco deals with the business of care while the propco owns the physical home. PE firms then sell off the propco to someone else as a fast way to make money. The issue is that now the opco doesn’t own its own property - it is at the mercy of a landlord.
- A side fact:
- Understanding Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs): LBOs, i.e. what PE firms do, is much like flipping a house, except using companies and debts. A scenario: You want to buy a mansion for $10M. You front $1M of your own money and borrow the remaining $9M from banks. You buy the mansion, and then start to flip it. You get some money back by selling off its assets, e.g. some of its land, the servant’s quarters and firing the cook that comes with the mansion. You flip it by renovating → increasing its worth. Then, 5 years or so later, you sell the mansion for $20M. You pay the bank back its $9M plus interest and have the remaining $11M to split amongst your investors. Very nice. (From this youtube video).
- Now, why not just front the initial $10M yourself? Why even take out a loan in the first place? According to this scenario, if you front the $10M yourself, you get a 100% return. If you front only $1M using your investor’s funds, you get a 1000% return - much higher. And crucially, if you use less of your investors funds, you have tied up much less of their money and have more to work with. I.e. one could make 10 such deals in the same timespan if we simply use loans.
Also, see below - if the company does go bankrupt, that company has to repay the debts to the bank, not the PE firm, so there is much lower risk here. The PE firm can technically extract profits and walk out before the company itself goes bankrupt.
- Why is this a problem for the working class? For one, those employed by companies that were acquired in LBOs are often fired or benefits are slashed in order to reduce the company’s costs to service the PE’s debts. Additionally, the debt is placed on the acquired company’s books, not on the PE firm’s! So the company is now responsible for flipping itself and dramatically increasing its value.
- Some examples of the catastrophic effects of PE are in housing and elderly care homes.
[...] at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic, the homes with the greatest debts, where leverage was above 75 per cent, had a death rate nearly twice as high as homes with no leverage at all. ‘In bad times, leveraged operators have to cut costs more than unleveraged operators,’
- Sale and leaseback techniques are another way PEs service their debts quickly. They take an existing company, like a care home, and split it into smaller companies, like an operating company ‘opco’ and a property company ‘propco’. The opco deals with the business of care while the propco owns the physical home. PE firms then sell off the propco to someone else as a fast way to make money. The issue is that now the opco doesn’t own its own property - it is at the mercy of a landlord.
- A side fact:
In that year alone, the typical owner of a single-family home gained $55,000 in asset appreciation, nearly as much as the median salary for a full-time employee.” “[...] housing was becoming the single most important factor determining a person’s wealth.
April 14, 2026
Everyone needs to read this, but it will make you very angry.
July 21, 2026
This read like a newspaper editorial column (the opinion to facts ratio was roughly 1.5:1). It was very good at explaining the public debates around private equity. I would've liked to know more about the deals themselves, and would've liked a more comprehensive historical pov.
June 26, 2026
PE is out of fucking control and we live in an oligarchy
July 26, 2026
Umfassend, klug, perspektivenreich; besonders toll fand ich das Kapitel über den Widerstand gegen ein privatisiertes Abwasserunternehmen in Yorkshire und das Kapitel übers Wohnen in Kopenhagen. Aber bleibt gerade am Anfang oft auf so einer Meso-Ebene, die sehr unbefriedigend ist und die mir bei Guardian Long Reads schon öfter aufgefallen ist. Details mehr zum Ausschmücken als zum Erzählen vielleicht? Und das war bei den erwähnten Kapiteln anders. Aber liest sich flüssig, ist kurz, man ist danach deutlich klüger als vorher, zitiert Gabor, was will man mehr? (Antwort s.o.)
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August 31, 2026Very interesting! I did not really know much about private equity before reading this book. Not only a knowledgeable inquiry into private equity firms but also baffling business practices that ultimately everyone (but the firms) pay for.
May 11, 2026
3.5⭐️
September 19, 2026
A tintillating expośe of how private equity has become one of the most extractive forms of financial ownership in our society. The ownership of care homes, water companies, roads, housing stock and many other essential services by this opaque group of financiers has allowed the debt-fuelled destruction of those services and products over time.
Hettie O'Brien takes us through a journey told through engaging conversations and interviews with many people including the private equity financiers themselves, really bringing to life how destructive both the ideology and practical reality of private equity ownership has been in Western economies.
The book does however also gives hope, showing how examples from Spain, Denmark and other countries where citizens have resisted, fought and won against private equity - providing a blueprint for further action into an industry that is slowly eroding the essentials of life.
A fascinating read and commendable insight!
Hettie O'Brien takes us through a journey told through engaging conversations and interviews with many people including the private equity financiers themselves, really bringing to life how destructive both the ideology and practical reality of private equity ownership has been in Western economies.
The book does however also gives hope, showing how examples from Spain, Denmark and other countries where citizens have resisted, fought and won against private equity - providing a blueprint for further action into an industry that is slowly eroding the essentials of life.
A fascinating read and commendable insight!
July 12, 2026
Everyone should read this book-I learnt a lot about private equity and much of it was very disturbing. Enlightening and horrifying.
August 16, 2026
The book is about stories that take place mainly in the UK and the US, with one story set in Africa. The stories are all built around essentially the same theme: a public service is taken over by private equity, prices increase, and the service deteriorates, at the expense of the public.
Unfortunately, the book executes this argument very poorly. It is an inch deep and a mile wide. It jumps from one case to another without ever really explaining the problem in depth. By the end, you have heard about many scandals but learned surprisingly little about the underlying issues.
Another major problem is the cherry-picking. The author consistently selects particularly egregious examples and presents them as evidence for a much broader argument. There is very little attempt to examine counterexamples, distinguish between different types of private equity ownership, or consider whether the same problems occur under public or traditional private ownership. The result feels less like an investigation and more like a case being built against a predetermined target.
The biggest flaw, however, is the author's lack of objectivity. It is painfully obvious that the book is written with the intention of portraying private equity as the villain. There is nothing inherently wrong with criticizing private equity, but if that is the argument, the author should at least make a serious effort to present the other side and let the evidence speak for itself. Instead, the book often feels activist in its approach.
This is particularly disappointing because the author is a journalist. You would at least expect the writing to be engaging and compelling. It isn't. The book is boring. Reading it often felt like a chore rather than an interesting investigation.
The chapter about sewage is probably the best example. It spends around 25 pages essentially repeating that companies are releasing sewage into the water, that local residents are unhappy about it, and that they are fighting the companies. This could have been explained in a couple of pages. Instead, the same basic point is repeated over and over without providing much additional information or meaningful analysis. And yes, the book really does spend a significant amount of time talking about sewage.
Overall, I found the book shallow, repetitive, one-sided, and poorly written. It raises some potentially interesting questions about private equity and the privatization of public services, but does very little to explore them in any depth.
There are much better books on private equity that I would recommend reading instead.
Unfortunately, the book executes this argument very poorly. It is an inch deep and a mile wide. It jumps from one case to another without ever really explaining the problem in depth. By the end, you have heard about many scandals but learned surprisingly little about the underlying issues.
Another major problem is the cherry-picking. The author consistently selects particularly egregious examples and presents them as evidence for a much broader argument. There is very little attempt to examine counterexamples, distinguish between different types of private equity ownership, or consider whether the same problems occur under public or traditional private ownership. The result feels less like an investigation and more like a case being built against a predetermined target.
The biggest flaw, however, is the author's lack of objectivity. It is painfully obvious that the book is written with the intention of portraying private equity as the villain. There is nothing inherently wrong with criticizing private equity, but if that is the argument, the author should at least make a serious effort to present the other side and let the evidence speak for itself. Instead, the book often feels activist in its approach.
This is particularly disappointing because the author is a journalist. You would at least expect the writing to be engaging and compelling. It isn't. The book is boring. Reading it often felt like a chore rather than an interesting investigation.
The chapter about sewage is probably the best example. It spends around 25 pages essentially repeating that companies are releasing sewage into the water, that local residents are unhappy about it, and that they are fighting the companies. This could have been explained in a couple of pages. Instead, the same basic point is repeated over and over without providing much additional information or meaningful analysis. And yes, the book really does spend a significant amount of time talking about sewage.
Overall, I found the book shallow, repetitive, one-sided, and poorly written. It raises some potentially interesting questions about private equity and the privatization of public services, but does very little to explore them in any depth.
There are much better books on private equity that I would recommend reading instead.
August 9, 2026
"The notion, prized since the Cold War, that deregulated markets inevitably promoted democracy, wasn't going to survive much longer."
pg. 227
pg. 227
July 26, 2026
I'm a glutton for insightful books about industries, and have been longing for someone to do a good treatment of Private Equity for years. As such, this was a welcome find and a well-executed answer to my craving. The author does an excellent job explaining how private equity deals work, including leverage and fee structures, and - perhaps more importantly - the carried interest loophole and excruciatingly ill-advised idea that is allowing retail investors in PE funds. I fear her book will not change the status quo or help us avert the inevitable consequences, but I applaud her for spelling it out with such articulation and fairness.
It is, perhaps, a bit biased against private equity, but in a way that feels come-to-honesty, and not nearly so much as other attempts, like BAD COMPANY.
It is, perhaps, a bit biased against private equity, but in a way that feels come-to-honesty, and not nearly so much as other attempts, like BAD COMPANY.
May 7, 2026
A dive into the stories behind private equity focusing on the big asset classes you'll likely have heard about.
Written in journalistic style it's a rather pedestrian tour into the world of PE. It's interesting but somewhat muddled explanation of PE and sometimes mixes it with other classes such as asset management in general .
Nevertheless a worthy read if you're at all interested in how predominantly in the West financiers have bought into the fabric of life and profited immensely from doing so. The only other thing to note is the author's political bias is quite obvious in some parts of the book
Written in journalistic style it's a rather pedestrian tour into the world of PE. It's interesting but somewhat muddled explanation of PE and sometimes mixes it with other classes such as asset management in general .
Nevertheless a worthy read if you're at all interested in how predominantly in the West financiers have bought into the fabric of life and profited immensely from doing so. The only other thing to note is the author's political bias is quite obvious in some parts of the book
October 7, 2026
I found myself skipping around a lot in this book. Much of the book’s beginning focuses on British and Danish examples. And while it’s all connected, I was hoping for more U.S.-based examples. Those examples are there but scattered about. Once I hit chapter 6, the book picked up for me in interest and pacing. The biggest thing I learned is that these private equity firms are taking investments from “companies” that don’t have to disclose their ownership. We have no idea who’s behind them, and it’s often nefarious forces. This is an extremely important topic, and I’m hoping someone will make a documentary or movie based on this book much like Michael Lewis’s “The Big Short.”
May 31, 2026
This is a brilliant read but also helps to fill all the gaps in your knowledge. This confirms things I already know but explains the why and provides empirical evidence with interesting insights.
Another great pro is partly what allows the super rich to grow and seem unreachable is through use of terms like neoliberalism, leveraged buy outs and private equity. This books provides definitions to these complex terms.
Another great pro is partly what allows the super rich to grow and seem unreachable is through use of terms like neoliberalism, leveraged buy outs and private equity. This books provides definitions to these complex terms.
July 24, 2026
I bloody loved it! She’s a queen! So well written, well narrativised and well exposed. Yes the extent of the political bias renders almost every person she interviews a 2 dimensional goodie or baddie but who cares - she’s a slay and I look forward to what she writes next
August 9, 2026
Reads like a thriller, but it’s our real world. There are many better, more in-depth books on the subject, but this one managed to be a page turner and explain in simple terms, the complex beast that Private Equity is. Prepare to get angry during and after reading.
August 18, 2026
I really enjoyed this book - got to the end and wanted to start again. It's one I expect I'll read again in the future, and has a really interesting framework for viewing Private Equity within larger global forces at play.
May 28, 2026
Groundbreaking work. A real eye opener to anyone looking at the state of the UK/US economies right now as well as the scandal that’s absorbed them in the last 40 years.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Very good. Detailed, damning, well-written. Recommended.
(Took a while only because I was travelling and didn't have time to read.)
(Took a while only because I was travelling and didn't have time to read.)
July 18, 2026
Very well written history with excellent easy to follow illustrative stories. This is the continuation of the greed is good 90s that is hollowing out our country.
August 5, 2026
An excellent read about how private equity short circuits free market capitalism.
August 24, 2026
This should be compulsory reading!
And we should all push for change in regulation and policy!
Horrific and informative.
And we should all push for change in regulation and policy!
Horrific and informative.
September 27, 2026
A fascinating read about the history of private equity - it'll definitely open your eyes to what is really going on and how we've ended up in the state we're currently in.
July 27, 2026
This was another audiobook listen over a couple of weekends mowing the grass. I know I've got the liberal/woke mind virus, but it continues to astonish me that private equity is allowed to exist in its current form.
June 28, 2026
3.5 stars. Solidly researched and relativrlt neutral but feels substantively thin at times
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews