Are Private Equity Firms Plundering the U.S. Economy? (Update)

Hey there, it's Steven Dubner. We recently published an episode featuring David Rubinstein, co-founder of The Carlisle Group, which is one of the biggest and most influential private equity firms in the world. Today we are replaying for you an episode we made in 2023 about that industry. It's called Our Private Equity Firms Plundering the US Economy. It features a couple of pretty revealing stories about Carlisle. We have updated facts and figures as necessary. If you have an idea for an episode or just want to let us know what you're thinking, our email is radio at freakonomics.com. As always, thanks.

For listening. This? Is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything, with your host, Steven Dubner. This is a story about what some people call piracy. These people with only dollar signs as their goal plundered something really wonderful.

And where is this so-called piracy happening? It's everywhere. It is possibly your kids' schools. Could be your employer. Could be the mortgage on your house. Missile defense systems it's everywhere.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (48 minutes, 7,910 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 10 episodes for $5, and monthly plans are cheaper still.