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Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream
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.
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.
9 pages, Audiobook
First published June 10, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 521 reviews
July 4, 2025
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.
July 8, 2025
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.)
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.)
October 25, 2025
3.5 stars
Eye-opening and informative book about private equity and the toll it takes on everyday humans living in the United States, especially those from economically disenfranchised backgrounds. In Bad Company Megan Greenwell follows a doctor trying to save his rural town’s only hospital, a journalist striving to make a career for herself amidst the changing news landscape, a Toys R Us employee whose dedication to the company is tested, and a family struggling with poor housing conditions in Northern Virginia.
I liked how Greenwell breaks down private equity, what it is and how it functions. My sense is that it’s such a core and now common and ubiquitous feature of capitalism that folks don’t think about it or can’t fully articulate its impact. I appreciated the relative diversity within the folks Greenwell featured in this book. Their stories represented, in some ways, fighting back against private equity, without minimizing its negative impact. While I found the writing a bit dry at times, I recognize the importance of the topic and would still recommend the book tot hose interested.
Eye-opening and informative book about private equity and the toll it takes on everyday humans living in the United States, especially those from economically disenfranchised backgrounds. In Bad Company Megan Greenwell follows a doctor trying to save his rural town’s only hospital, a journalist striving to make a career for herself amidst the changing news landscape, a Toys R Us employee whose dedication to the company is tested, and a family struggling with poor housing conditions in Northern Virginia.
I liked how Greenwell breaks down private equity, what it is and how it functions. My sense is that it’s such a core and now common and ubiquitous feature of capitalism that folks don’t think about it or can’t fully articulate its impact. I appreciated the relative diversity within the folks Greenwell featured in this book. Their stories represented, in some ways, fighting back against private equity, without minimizing its negative impact. While I found the writing a bit dry at times, I recognize the importance of the topic and would still recommend the book tot hose interested.
July 29, 2025
Great explainer and really good story telling. Weirdly feels sort of essential for understanding the Enshittification of society.
October 7, 2025
Bad Company is described by the NYT as "[An] indictment of an industry that has cannily tilted the playing field in its favor. Bad Company details how clichéd abstractions like ‘consolidation’ and ‘efficiency’ have given cover to real betrayals.”
Bad Company subtitled “Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream”, explores how deeply entrenched PE is in American society and its sweeping impact on our economy and the labor workforce. The book primarily follows 4 people across different sectors: retail, journalism, healthcare, and public housing, and how each of their experiences were shaped by the role of PE.
While the focus of Bad Company is an entirely different topic, at times, reading this book reminded me of Empire of Pain, in the way it delivered a similar reading experience, both informative and at times, frustrating.
Bad Company subtitled “Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream”, explores how deeply entrenched PE is in American society and its sweeping impact on our economy and the labor workforce. The book primarily follows 4 people across different sectors: retail, journalism, healthcare, and public housing, and how each of their experiences were shaped by the role of PE.
While the focus of Bad Company is an entirely different topic, at times, reading this book reminded me of Empire of Pain, in the way it delivered a similar reading experience, both informative and at times, frustrating.
August 18, 2025
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
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
August 22, 2025
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:
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.
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.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.
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.
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.
June 23, 2025
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.
April 8, 2025
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.
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.
October 8, 2025
Private equity is basically evil Monopoly money. This focuses on four people representing four industries: retail, hospitals, newspapers, and housing. I think it would have read easier if we'd seen the full arc of each person/industry instead of breaking them into three parts. But I can see what the author was going for by structuring it this way. I still don't fully understand how private equity works but that speaks to how intentionally byzantine it is and how much they spend on lobbying to keep it that way. Basically, don’t trust anyone who works in that realm. And support any politician who wants to even try to pass legislation about putting private equity in check.
*I did not take content notes for this book, but know that it includes past child sexual abuse, DUI, and more.
*I did not take content notes for this book, but know that it includes past child sexual abuse, DUI, and more.
August 11, 2025
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.
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.
October 12, 2025
"Making it difficult to know what’s going on is exactly the point of so much about how private equity operates."
The above is exactly the reason why everyone should read this book. Private equity owns our homes, affordable housing apartments and mobile homes and charges abusive rents to the people who can least afford it, they buy our retailers, newspapers, etc. and decimate them until the jobs are gone and once thriving businesses disappear leaving behind ruined lives, and they buy hospitals and medical practices and bleed them dry of every last bit of profit until they are gone leaving many in what amounts to medical desserts, and that's just for starters.
There is no better way to show the impact of something than to hear the words of those who have lived through it, and that's what the author does so well through Liz, Roger, Natalia, and Loren's personal stories. This well researched book explains how private equity works and affects all of our lives, in plain simple language easy to understand. Reading it will probably make you mad and maybe even depress you a little, but understanding why something is happening is the only way to do something about it.
For those who think none of this concerns you, I will quote the author, "If it doesn’t play a role in your life yet, just wait. Private equity is everybody’s problem now.
"The reality is that no one benefits nearly as much from private equity as private equity itself."
The above is exactly the reason why everyone should read this book. Private equity owns our homes, affordable housing apartments and mobile homes and charges abusive rents to the people who can least afford it, they buy our retailers, newspapers, etc. and decimate them until the jobs are gone and once thriving businesses disappear leaving behind ruined lives, and they buy hospitals and medical practices and bleed them dry of every last bit of profit until they are gone leaving many in what amounts to medical desserts, and that's just for starters.
There is no better way to show the impact of something than to hear the words of those who have lived through it, and that's what the author does so well through Liz, Roger, Natalia, and Loren's personal stories. This well researched book explains how private equity works and affects all of our lives, in plain simple language easy to understand. Reading it will probably make you mad and maybe even depress you a little, but understanding why something is happening is the only way to do something about it.
For those who think none of this concerns you, I will quote the author, "If it doesn’t play a role in your life yet, just wait. Private equity is everybody’s problem now.
"The reality is that no one benefits nearly as much from private equity as private equity itself."
June 11, 2025
I try to remind myself every day how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to leave the US
April 18, 2025
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.
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.
November 9, 2025
At risk of sounding glib: News Flash. Corporations and big business are all pretty fucking terrible, especially when it comes to the havoc wrought upon on the daily lives of workers and their families. Growing up in a region where downsizing, automation, farming out labor or even entire industries to cheaper overseas interests, etc., all decimated the area economy and workforce at great human and quality of life cost, I’ve been witnessing and reading and watching and listening to stories about this for ages. Private equity influence constitutes merely yet another chapter in this saga. This book explores both the direct impact on workers and businesses and the fallout on families, bystanders, and communities of private equity acquisitions in four different market sectors: retail, newspaper publishing, rental housing, and medical. The retail section deals with Toys ‘R Us and is by far the most interesting, could’ve been the book in itself. I appreciated this read and am always up for a reminder of the ravages of capitalism and the wealthy oligarchy driving it. However, I struggled to understand exactly how private equity, in contrast to your other types of corporate horribleness aforementioned, specifically accounted for the destruction described. I also wondered, if there is a devil’s advocate or “good side” to all of this, what is it, because it certainly isn’t covered in this book, which is decidedly one-sided. There very well may be no good side whatsoever, but I would have been willing to at least skeptically consider one.
August 20, 2025
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.
🤯 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.
August 9, 2025
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.
Thank you to Goodreads and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.
July 6, 2025
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...
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...
November 1, 2025
It promises a deep investigation into private equity but delivers a character study instead. It focuses on four personal stories rather than breaking new ground or uncovering insider truths about the PE industry. Despite strong writing, it lacks fresh reporting, meaningful revelations, or access to key players, as a result it's more narrative journalism than true investigation.
May 2, 2025
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.
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.
June 26, 2025
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.
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.
June 27, 2025
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.
October 18, 2025
4.5 stars
My impression of private equity before reading this book was mostly surface-level. I knew about the industry, the high salaries involved, and the variety of sectors it invested in. I was seeing more and more criticism online of how it disrupted businesses and communities, but I wanted to understand why. This book didn’t just answer all my questions, but it highlighted the people whose lives get upended by private equity, and the result is truly incredible journalism.
I was listening to the audiobook while I was on a walk and I was genuinely jaw-dropped hearing these stories. This book follows four different people across the US: a Toys ‘R Us retail worker, a local newspaper journalist, a doctor in rural Wyoming, and a resident of a PE-owned apartment complex. They represent the millions of people across the country whose jobs and lives are being disrupted, while the executives at these PE firms are profiting massively off their demises.
The chapters focusing on the rural doctor are probably what angered me the most. PE has invested over $1 trillion in the healthcare industry over the last decade, but this hasn’t benefitted patients. The prioritization of profit over patient care is the frightening reality that we are unfortunately living in, and it is only becoming more widespread.
The business models of companies like Blackstone are essentially based on profiting when everyone else loses. For example, when Toys ‘R Us was “saved” in 2005 by PE firms like KKR and Bain Capital, it was a leveraged buyout of $6.6 billion. Yet the debt responsibility (over $5 billion) was on Toys ‘R Us, which was already a struggling company. They had to make $400 million in annual interest payments, which led to their eventual bankruptcy and over 30,000 employees losing their jobs. Yet the PE executives at KKR and Bain still profited from the deal—from advisory services, interest payments, and real estate profits, among others. Employees like Liz, the one at the center of this book, had to fight for severance pay, but the PE executives walked away with millions of dollars.
The author does an incredible job of highlighting the stories that are often unheard, because these are the people who are the biggest victims. You get to directly hear from them in their own words how these companies came in and ruined their lives and communities. For example, at the rural hospital where the Wyoming doctor worked, the PE company cut obstetrics services, forcing the residents to drive much farther distances literally to give birth. How is that not an essential service?
I think you can see how this book genuinely infuriated me, but it was also inspiring to read about how communities can come together to create long-term change on their own. All in all, I highly recommend this book to everyone.
My impression of private equity before reading this book was mostly surface-level. I knew about the industry, the high salaries involved, and the variety of sectors it invested in. I was seeing more and more criticism online of how it disrupted businesses and communities, but I wanted to understand why. This book didn’t just answer all my questions, but it highlighted the people whose lives get upended by private equity, and the result is truly incredible journalism.
I was listening to the audiobook while I was on a walk and I was genuinely jaw-dropped hearing these stories. This book follows four different people across the US: a Toys ‘R Us retail worker, a local newspaper journalist, a doctor in rural Wyoming, and a resident of a PE-owned apartment complex. They represent the millions of people across the country whose jobs and lives are being disrupted, while the executives at these PE firms are profiting massively off their demises.
The chapters focusing on the rural doctor are probably what angered me the most. PE has invested over $1 trillion in the healthcare industry over the last decade, but this hasn’t benefitted patients. The prioritization of profit over patient care is the frightening reality that we are unfortunately living in, and it is only becoming more widespread.
The business models of companies like Blackstone are essentially based on profiting when everyone else loses. For example, when Toys ‘R Us was “saved” in 2005 by PE firms like KKR and Bain Capital, it was a leveraged buyout of $6.6 billion. Yet the debt responsibility (over $5 billion) was on Toys ‘R Us, which was already a struggling company. They had to make $400 million in annual interest payments, which led to their eventual bankruptcy and over 30,000 employees losing their jobs. Yet the PE executives at KKR and Bain still profited from the deal—from advisory services, interest payments, and real estate profits, among others. Employees like Liz, the one at the center of this book, had to fight for severance pay, but the PE executives walked away with millions of dollars.
The author does an incredible job of highlighting the stories that are often unheard, because these are the people who are the biggest victims. You get to directly hear from them in their own words how these companies came in and ruined their lives and communities. For example, at the rural hospital where the Wyoming doctor worked, the PE company cut obstetrics services, forcing the residents to drive much farther distances literally to give birth. How is that not an essential service?
I think you can see how this book genuinely infuriated me, but it was also inspiring to read about how communities can come together to create long-term change on their own. All in all, I highly recommend this book to everyone.
September 1, 2025
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.
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.
December 5, 2025
The author’s storytelling was quite good, setting up the background and humanizing the people affected by the negative effects of private equity. She established a solid baseline understanding of what private equity is and how it works. I found myself wanting to learn more about it.
Though it felt like two books at times, one about people and another about the corporate finance world. My biggest critique of the book would probably be the occasional jabs and condescending tone toward “Trump supporters” in ways that ultimately had nothing to do with the topic. This gave it a sense of partisanship, which could easily dissuade a large portion of the population from engaging in this conversation with an author who comes across as biased.
I say that not to legitimize Trump supporters’ ideals, but rather to critique the alienation of those who could be engaged through reasoning to promote change regarding the problems with private equity.
That said, I think it’s a book worth reading, if at the very least to understand how this issue is affecting rural hospitals, even if I don’t agree with some of the proposed policies to fix the problem.
Though it felt like two books at times, one about people and another about the corporate finance world. My biggest critique of the book would probably be the occasional jabs and condescending tone toward “Trump supporters” in ways that ultimately had nothing to do with the topic. This gave it a sense of partisanship, which could easily dissuade a large portion of the population from engaging in this conversation with an author who comes across as biased.
I say that not to legitimize Trump supporters’ ideals, but rather to critique the alienation of those who could be engaged through reasoning to promote change regarding the problems with private equity.
That said, I think it’s a book worth reading, if at the very least to understand how this issue is affecting rural hospitals, even if I don’t agree with some of the proposed policies to fix the problem.
August 20, 2025
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.
August 31, 2025
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.
July 13, 2025
4.5 stars. A great look into how private equity impacts us all
October 20, 2025
Luved it! Meticulously reported, if I may. And Chelsea Herrera is LITERALLY thanked in the acknowledgements! Who I know IRL
October 1, 2025
Really good read/listen about private equity destroying industries and businesses, including health care. I wish I could make all of my peers who began our careers in nonprofits/mission driven orgs but are now at for-profits read this, to see how little effectively providing services matters, and the tactics re: staff attrition and $$$$. These tactics apply elsewhere and it's good to recognize them.
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