Private Equity Doesn't Deserve Its Bad Reputation
Get these images out of your head.
Photographer: Thomas Trutschel/Getty ImageCapitalism is quietly changing. For the past century, market economies have been dominated by publicly listed companies. But in the last two decades, there has been a slow, steady shift toward private equity. PE firms can themselves be listed on public exchanges, but the companies they run -- which are mostly owned by limited partners, rather than the firms themselves -- are often vast in both size and number. In 2013, management consulting firm Bain & Co. found that private equity accounted for 11 percent of large U.S. companies and 23 percent of midsized companies. The industry is growing globally too:
The total number of PE firms has increased enormously, and total assets under management now stands at about $2.5 trillion.