Josh Kosman on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross

On Monday, Portfolio author Josh Kosman was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross about his new book The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Will Cause the Next Great Credit Crisis. Terry and Josh discussed how a private equity firm operates and how their practices harm the companies they purchase. Kosman asserts that PE firms have purchased more than three thousand American companies from 2000 to 2008, employing close to ten million people—close to one of every ten workers in the private sector. In the last ten years, private equity deals have generated more than $1 trillion in new debt—which will come due just when these businesses are least likely to be able to pay it off. As a result, Kosman predicts about half of all private equity-owned companies will likely collapse between now and 2015, throwing nearly two million people out of work and triggering another economic meltdown.

If you missed the interview, it is still available online along with an excerpt from the book.