Oh FFS (flying fish sticks).
Is there any industry private equity *hasn't* ruined yet?
“'A large number of these funds are seeing veterinary medicine as a good profit center,' said Dr. Jacobson, an Iowa veterinarian who serves on the board of the IVPA. He said he’s seen corporate-owned chains in his region drive up prices for consumers, suppress market competition and skirt state laws that ostensibly prohibit veterinary practices from being owned by non-veterinarians."
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/vets-fret-private-equity-snaps-clinics-pet-care-companies
Private equity is also responsible for driving up debt servicing around the world, with particular damage being done to low-income countries.
It's a nasty situation. Governments are lured by promises of investment with fewer restrictions than one receives from bank arrangements - but without the same checks and balances via court systems to help manage their creditors later on.
Private firms then get a personal chokehold on whole other state economies.
So not just the US, alas!
What a world we live in...
It's all about the money.
"When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?"
Little has changed since those words were written in 1955...
Another (Sigh...)
@MLClark my vet of 7 years was recently bought. Their best Dr and then several great staff all left. I haven’t returned.
To be Socratic… is it PE specifically that created the dynamic you speak to (in other reply) or banking regulations, monetary policies and Eurodollar dynamics that fertilized the strong PE roots we now see under the $ trees?
(Also worth noting, the distinction between private equity and private credit)
If you're referring to the surge in global debt servicing, SEZs, and related exploitation, no, the impact of PE and PC didn't emerge in a vacuum. (Does anything?)
Banks lending with rigid austerity and trade requirements create political cultures far more amenable to private-public relationships that seem easier... right until a state needs to renegotiate terms and finds an immovable object in these purely profit seekers.
It's one predatory system after another. No argument there.
@MLClark
(Sigh...)
Only in America...
Or not???