People like “junk bond king” Michael Milken took notice and started following the model. Simon, a Nixon administration official and right-winger whose heart’s desire was to free finance and corporations from regulation, left Washington to execute the first “leveraged buyout.” He and a partner bought an old greeting card company on mostly borrowed funds, extracted huge fees, and then sold it for enormous profit in a rising market. ” He reveals how private equity will transform our lives over the next decade in ways as profound as Big Tech did in the last, and not for the better unless we change how it does business.įinancier William Simon got the idea for private equity back in the seventies. Names like KKR, Carlyle, and Blackstone tend to fly under the radar, but they’re everywhere, making more money, gaining more influence, and some would argue, wreaking more havoc than anything else on Wall Street.įederal prosecutor Brendan Ballou provides the scrutiny that an industry with this much economic and political power should invite in his provocative new book, “ Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan To Pillage America. Price hikes, deteriorating conditions, and poor service - along with a certain slickness of marketing - could be signs that ownership of a business you count on has transferred to one or more firms in a rapidly-expanding Wall Street industry. The kind that was rapidly taking over vet clinics, dental offices, and gyms on every block – though you wouldn’t know it unless you did some sleuthing.

The same type of firm that had already ruined my beloved neighborhood grocer. I learned an interesting fact: a couple of years ago, a private equity firm had bought the local chain. Here is the fiery story of what happens when two people surrender to a love so great it can heal the scars of the past and give way to a life of pure, rapturous ecstasy.One of my favorite NYC restaurants had become understaffed and dirty – a shadow of its former self. Will Ethan be able to save Brynne from a past that keeps her locked in fear? Will he ever feel the warmth of her touch, the solidity of her trust again? This is a love-struck man who is willing to do whatever it takes to possess the heart of the woman he loves. With political threats now directed at Brynne, Ethan is running out of time and he’ll need to gather all his strength and agility to protect her from the dangers that could take her away from him forever. The passion between them was explosive, but the secrets they hid from each other are dark and chilling and are powerful enough to destroy their shot at a life together. He’s unwilling to live without her and isn’t giving up-he’s dead-set on getting his beautiful American girl back. He’s broken Brynne’s trust and she’s left him.

A man who’ll go all in.Įthan Blackstone has a problem on his hands. The second part in The Blackstone Affair series!

Blackstone affair book 2