Today, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reintroduced the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, legislation that would curb some of the worst excesses of the private equity industry.
Eileen Appelbaum, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and co-author of the book “Private Equity at Work: When Wall Street Manages Main Street,” released a letter to Senator Warren that traces the rise of this dangerous industry. The letter explains the economic circumstances that fueled private equity’s explosive growth, and the risky financial schemes that have delivered massive profits to investors while decimating American health care companies – doing lasting damage to the interests of workers, caregivers and patients.
The letter also takes a close look at the looting of Steward Health Care, the Massachusetts-based health care chain that was driven into bankruptcy.
As Appelbaum’s letter states, “The Stop Wall Street Looting Act contains many provisions to bring the looting of economically viable companies by Wall Street owners to an end, and to protect the interests of workers in the bankruptcy proceedings…. Financial market regulators need far more transparency about the financial situation of private investment funds and the opaque interactions among them in order to safeguard US financial markets from unexpected disruptions or worse.”
