Is Business Broken?

Can Private Equity Be a Force for Good?

April 16, 2026·32 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

We are living through a massive migration of wealth. More and more capital is leaving public markets and flowing into private equity. There's even a growing push to let everyday investors put their retirement savings into private markets. But as private equity's footprint expands, so does the debate over who actually benefits. Has private equity made the economy more efficient, innovative, and productive — or has it become a system for extracting wealth at the expense of workers, consumers, and communities? Can private equity be a force for good? And if this is where the money is flowing, what rules and safeguards do we actually need? Host Curt Nickisch unpacks this question and more with Danny Wadhwani, Private Equity investor and Co-founder at ThinkLite; Gretchen Morgenson, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist from NBC News; and Thomas Wollmann, Associate Professor in Markets, Public Policy, & Law at Boston University Questrom School of Business. Related reading:  Painful Bargaining: Evidence from Anesthesia Rollups Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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