Bad Company is an excellent storytelling approach to explain and uncover private equity's insidious entanglement in our lives! The author, Megan Greenwell, is a former reporter and editor whose own job and career were affected by private equity.

Economics typically makes my eyes glaze over, so I was expecting to have to really lock in to read about private equity, but Greenwell does a fantastic job of illustrating private equity through some definition and explanation but mostly through real life examples. Her case studies follow four regular Americans impacted by the scourge of private equity in housing, healthcare, journalism, and retail. These stories are the best way to explain what private equity is and to emphasize how it has and will affect every one of us financially, emotionally, and physically.

Nonfiction written by reporters is always my favorite, and this is no exception. This book is easy to read, even amongst some necessary facts and figures and economics topics. The narrative is structured in three main parts: before private equity takeover, during the takeover, and after. In those sections, Greenwell moves between case studies, which kept me engaged and intrigued to read more. The four individuals followed in this book feel very real, which is impressive in a relatively short book. I am also especially impressed that Greenwell was able to leave me with some feelings of optimism despite the very grim present reality.

Greenwell chose a great array of case study areas, so I think this book would be interesting to anyone living in the US. I will definitely be recommending this book to anyone who wants to know why things are getting worse (and how they could get better!) and I would love to read more by Greenwell.

Thank you, Dey Street Books, for the arc!

This book should be required reading for everyone to help understand what is going on in this country. Focusing on the stories of 4 people is a masterful idea by the author as it not only humanizes the story but it draws a connection to every reader as our lives intersect with the mentioned industries every day.

You have always heard the term Private Equity banded about in business. I had a vague idea of what it was.
I knew that it was taking distressed businesses and selling them off piece by piece till there was nothing left of the original company, meanwhile the private equity would make millions of dollars.

The author says yep that is what Private Equity does, BUT SO MUCH MORE!

The author found 4 people affected by Private Equity when their companies that they worked for, lived in were bought out by private equity groups. One was in health care, journalism, one rented an apartment, and the other worked for Toys R Us.

With mounting dread, the author takes the reader into the seedy side of private equity. How they are robbing the American People of their taxes (thanks to Fannie and Freddie Mac low interest loans that private equity takes out) and money (higher prices for rent and medical care).

The author does NOT stop there, she puts real faces onto the situation, real companies, real apartments. She doesn't do it in a clinical way, she mixes the human interest, real lived experience with that of how private equity did it.

This book is vital and so desperately needed. I truly enjoyed the ending where the 4 human stories fought back against private equity and we all can too.