Ethically Challenged: Private Equity Storms US Health Care

In her sharp and deeply alarming Ethically Challenged: Private Equity Storms US Health Care, Laura Katz Olson likens private equity to an omnivorous and “clawed” beast sucking up businesses across the spectrum of US consumer markets. Olson shows that private equity, far from a picky eater, has begun to aggressively gobble up a greater and greater share of the health care sector over the past decade, often to the detriment of patients and providers. However, the unceasing litany of private equity deals and their outcomes, combined with the deeply obfuscatory nature of their activity, leaves one to wonder if private equity is truly a landbound beast replete with claws and gnashing teeth. Instead, Olson paints a picture of a ravenous leviathan lurking just below the surface of the dark and ominous waters of capital markets, its many tentacles fleetingly breaching the surface. She makes a convincing case that private...