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  "description": "Private equity owns our homes, nurseries, clinics and retirement homes—and it's sucking them dry.",
  "path": "/how-finance-ruined-capitalism-hettie-obrien/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-09T07:36:19.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.planetcritical.com",
  "tags": [
    "download",
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    "Get the UK version of The Asset Class today",
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  "textContent": "How Finance Ruined Capitalism | Hettie O'Brien\n\n0:00\n\n/3115.497914\n\n1×\n\nCapitalism was envisioned—and is still defended—as a vehicle for growth. This growth was meant to increase everyone's share of the pie. But one of the most opaque and unregulated finance sectors got its fingers into that pie—and built a mechanism to extract wealth from the very companies, public services and infrastructure it buys.\n\n🎧\n\n __You can listen to the episode on your podcast app, in your browser,__ download__it or__ watch__it on Youtube (where automatic subtitles are provided).__\n\nWelcome the the world of private equity, a shadow fleet of financial vehicles which are buying up our homes, schools, nurseries, roads, technology and everything in between—and yet that we know very little about. Journalist Hettie O'Brien, author of the newly released _The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself_ , joins me to expose just how wide the influence of this crooked sector is, explaining how over the past few decades private equity has undermined democracy, caused avoidable deaths in care homes, lobbied—and secured—access to our pensions, and has driven economic stagnation. Crucially, private equity does not create value—it extracts it, with no thought for the consequences which are offset onto the rest of us while the super rich get even richer off of our misfortune.\n\nGet the UK version of The Asset Class today, or pre-order the USA version here.\n\n__Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis. It is ad-free, paywall-free and 100% reader-supported. To show your support, leave a__ one-off tip__. or become a paying supporter.__\n\nSign up\n\nShare this article:\n\nX | Bluesky | Facebook | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email\n\nSocial Share Buttons\n\nShare:",
  "title": "How Finance Ruined Capitalism | Hettie O'Brien",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-14T17:05:01.225Z"
}