How Private Equity is Plundering America (with Brendan Ballou)

Episode 16

July 18 2023

33 minutes

With a skull and crossbones on the cover, and the title of Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America, Brendan Ballou’s debut book pulls no punches over the perceived greed and ineptitude of many of America’s private equity firms – and the damage they are causing to the economy and society.

All the more surprising then that the author is neither a journalist or a retired lawman but very much an active special counsel working for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Brendan clearly has a passion for the subject, matched by his deep knowledge in the field, and his conversation with Russell Napier is as fascinating as it is alarming. Very much worth a listen.

For more information on the Advanced Valuation in Financial Markets course mentioned by Russell, click here

Listen and subscribe on

The Library of Mistakes Course

The online version of our renowned course, is available for both finance professionals and nonprofessionals.

As featured in the Financial Times

In conjunction with Heriot-Watt University

Recent podcasts

Gambling Man (with Lionel Barber)

Lionel Barber, the former editor of the Financial Times, discusses his fascinating biography of Masayoshi Son, one of the world's least-known but most consequential investors. ...
Listen to podcast

Money & Promises (with Paolo Zannoni)

Money & Promises (Seven Deals That Changed World) is Paolo Zannoni's first book and one of Russell Napier's favourite books of the year. For as ...
Listen to podcast

Money – A Story of Humanity (with David McWilliams)

Despite being a fully paid-up member of the economist tribe for many years, I’ve concluded that most economists don’t really understand money," says David McWilliams, ...
Listen to podcast
Scroll to Top