Ralph welcomes journalist and author Megan Greenwell to discuss her book "Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream." Then, Ralph speaks to James Zogby (co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute) about the recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
If we stop voting for the Red or Blue half of the Gold Party we have to find something to vote for. If we vote for third parties or independent candidates that also take big money then we will only have three or four choices from the Gold Party instead of one or two.
Ralph has said that politicians want our votes more than big money to run their campaigns.
We can use this basic principle of democracy to demand that politicians do not take big money by demanding politicians run small donor campaigns and enforce this demand with our votes.
If there are no small donor candidates on the ballot in 2026 we can cast a write in vote to register a vote against the big money candidates on the ballot and to create and demonstrate demand for small donor candidates in 2028.
Just 10% of voters in 2026 participating in this strategy would inspire more citizens (maybe 20% or more) and some candidates to participate in 2028.
We should be able to get 10% in 2026 as around 90% of districts are gerrymandered so that the election is already decided for 2026.
If we start now we could begin electing small donor candidates in 2028 and even more in 2030.
Ralph said on Washington Journal (10-24-2018) that he would have me on the Radio Hour to discuss this strategy but has not done so yet.
Think of how many small donor candidates might be on the ballot in 2026 if we had started this back in 2018.
What we can do about it is tell Ralph you want him to discuss this strategy and encourage citizens and his network of activists to participate in this strategy in 2026.
This 10% would be made up of Democrat voters in Republican districts, Republican voters in Democrat districts, third party and independent voters in both of those kind of districts and maybe even some people that would not have voted in 2026.
This is not going to happen unless someone like Ralph helps. And Ralph is apparently not helping because not enough of his listeners are asking him to help.
As this is basic democracy in action if this doesn't work then democracy doesn't work . We won't know until we try it.
Ralph has said that citizens contacting legislators to let them know what you want them to do is part of what people should do so that should also work on Ralph.
Please help by letting Ralph know you want him to help organize citizens to utilize this basic principle of democracy he espoused in his statement about politicians wanting our votes more than big money to run their campaigns.
"Private equity", "hedge funds", and other similar extremely greedy and lawless international vulture-like companies, not only despoil the countries they prey on, but they also burn through many ivy league students, where they promise high wages but often require unethical and immoral business strategies for them to earn their keep. Just read the Rob Copeland book "The Fund" on Ray Dalio's operation in Westport and his bogus predicates spelled out in Dalio's book "Principles": https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/books/review/the-fund-rob-copeland.html
Comment on the book: "The key to long-term, outsized success in the hedge fund business is quite simple, no secret at all: the acquisition of non-public information. I spent about 10 years working as a consultant to a number of hedge funds, primarily providing tools for measuring and explaining portfolio performance,. That work provided me access not only to all the trading data but put in daily, close-quarters contact with numerous private investment managers, some of whom separated themselves, year after year, from the merely lucky and intelligent. I worked for one who was renowned in the San Francisco financial community for his ability to bully grown men and women to tears. He would latch onto someone at a company that was a target of his attention, and make them so miserable through his attentions that in desperation they would feed him inside financial and market information in the hope that he would go away. He was particularly good at finding low-level employees at companies that he was thinking of shorting. At another firm, one manager received anonymous copies of public company earnings reports, the night before the reports were published. This approach is no secret. The quantitative models, the high-speed trading, the research of public information, will all enable market-average performance. But if you want to be the best, you need to consider expanding your idea of research, to include using non-public information. Then let nothing stop you in the quest for that data."
Another;
"Men like this are bloated but cunning parasites. That’s what these men of hedge funds, Wall Street, investor groups are — and in their quest to siphon all wealth into their personal coffers, they’re destroying their host — the government services, protections and social programs we need to remain a healthy society with a large middle class. Schools, news media, banks, hospitals, nursing homes, real estate, dental offices — EVERYTHING is now controlled by private equity and hedge funds. We know what they’re doing and the IRS and congress regulations have the power to end these scammers, but I suspect the corruption in our government has become too entrenched."
And:
"I did some IT work at his CT offices, I swear it was cult like and very paranoid. I couldn’t even take a picture of a data port number, when in the IDF closet there were 4 people watching what I was looking at. And very reception area would offer you his book along with coffee or. Nuts."
And:
"Bottom feeders of vulture capitalism, contributing zero to society (actually strip-mining productive endeavors and feasting on the carcass), operating in a black box beyond the purview of regulators, creating tax law by corrupting public officials. Their wealth is generated through exploitation, rigging of financial, legal, and regulatory systems, operating in a grey zone of money laundering and transnational Ponzi schemes. Beyond the ability of any authority to regulate, this firm is a modern day pirate operation feasting on the 99% - leaving devastated communities and lives in its polluted wake. A just society would not allow this criminal operation to function, but ours has long ago been neutered by the billions spent by firms like this to capture every regulator and tax authority that might impede their path of social destruction."
Steve Cohen's operation in Shippan was tagged with insider trading charges but was ruthless enough to avoid prison time as the trader refused to talk about Cohen's involvement.
Just look at "Glassdoor" reviews, especially the one and two star reviews of companies such as "Bridgewater", where employees talk about stress so great that they are reduced literally to tears. Bridgewater hired James Comey and Jamie Gorelick to fend off sexual harassment and insider trading suits.
I had heard of private equity firms, but I was not sure what this meant. What I would like to have heard in this program is some specific examples of exactly, step by step, how these immoral profiteers do their dirty work.
I learned here that private equity firms are actually plunderers of businesses and possibly even of pension agencies and educational institutions, which could affect huge numbers of people in a way similar to the earlier subprime mortgage crisis.
Somehow these private equity firms arrange to use money from banks to invest in businesses without investing much of their own money. But how do well-educated, savvy people in charge of these banking institutions allow this to happen? Don't the banks lose money, when the business cannot repay the loan, and the private equity firms are not liable for the loss? Doesn't the reputation of these private equity firms, which are known to destroy businesses, follow them around?
How do these private equity firms manage to control the decisions of the business, allowing them to hollow out the business from the inside, making off with a suitcase full of money? Doesn't the business realize that they cannot give up control of their business to another company without their business facing negative repercussions? Do these predatory private equity firms shop for businesses in trouble, so they seem like a saviour when actually they are a vampire?
The devil is in the details. How can we turn to Congress for better legislation against such corruption, Ralph, when Congress is being bought and sold? I just heard one of the campaign speeches (the one from Atlanta) of a Democrat running for Senate in Georgia, Jon Ossoff, against fierce opposition, and I have hope.
Why can't the state of Connecticut tax carried interest as ordinary income instead of as capital gains? Who is Meagan Greenwell meeting with in Hartford and when?
On April 1, I presented to Governor Lamont a draft proposal to support a federal Direct Tax on capital to pay for the Iran War. Each state would be obligated to collect a tax in proportion to its population. Connecticut's share is about 1%.
The following is the first paragraph in the draft proposal:
This letter proposes a federal Direct Tax Act of 2026 modeled on the constitutional structure of the founding era and the federal Direct Tax of 1798, with Connecticut raising its apportioned share of a $200 billion national levy to fund the costs of the Iran war. The proposal rests on a simple principle: if the nation chooses war, the public should see the price of war directly, and each state should carry its apportioned constitutional share through taxes on property and wealth that can be valued administratively without individualized appraisal.
We are moving toward a new version of a feudal system. A small percentage of the population will own everything, and the masses will be forced to rent or lease everything. Most of the dry cleaners, HVAC repair people, printers, plumbers, dentists, and doctors have become employees of private equity. Communities wake up to find less local competition, higher costs, lower salaries, and worse services. Over time investment in the communities decrease because profits are extracted to provide the "owners" their income to live a life of leisure. When America had lots of independent small businesses the communities had distinctive flavors and numerous collaborators that kept the economy vibrant. Now we have chain restaurants, mega-retailers, and private equity owned shops. It doesn't matter where you live in the USA, it's becoming a homogenized, sterilized mediocrity without a soul.
I'm afraid you are right but maybe we can move towards a commune situation with mutual aide and then move to what - according to some - is the idea of communism and that others claim is something that Marx addressed: the end of capitalism will bring us communism. I cannot really elaborate because I haven't read enough to do so
Adriana, you might be interested in what Prof. Richard Woff has to say about this. He is an economist with the best credentials from Stanford, Harvard, and Yale, but he took a different path than capitalism. He is a Marxist, and a fascinating lecturer, too, and he supports worker co-ops. He believes worker co-ops are a way to reverse the absurd economic inequality we are experiencing in which appx. 1% of the people own 99% of the wealth. In a worker co-op, each employee is also the employer, so there is no separate employer class to exploit the employee, and great imbalances of wealth cannot occur, and ordinary people are much better off. He fascinates me because he is able to explain things so clearly. Prof. Wolff has been impersonated using AI, which is NOT the real Prof. Wolff I know and love. To assure that you get the real Prof. Wolff, visit his web site at Democracy@Work. Look for a program called Economic Update. He has many others, some exploring Marxism. Sign up to get his emails.
I know Prof. Wolf! I did corresponded with him and read some of his books. I agree with you , he explains things really well. He might have influenced how I see capitalism and a better future.
Thanks for Megan Greenwall and Ralph Nader providing an understandable summary of Private Equity. Yes, "Corporate Raiders" should be revived as a 'headline' description. How about "Private Equity Equals Public Inequity" or simply, "Private Inequity", as well?
A story : remember the days when returns were more important than risk, risk was something you had to do when you sometimes didn't have a choice or you made a mistake.
Many Years ago a friend of mine made a big mistake while working for a large airline in a Dallas tx and bought to much jet fuel and his boss was about to fire him and he got lucky and the price of jet fuel when up and he sold it for a nice profit for the airlines.,, but he got fired anyway. I told him he made a nice hedge on that jet fuel and didn't know it . A few years later he moved to New York City and I met him many years later at the 21 and he said he started what he called a hedge fund.
You see ,Don everyone thinks about earning something from doing something, I figured if I buy and sell something at the right time I can make more by ," doing nothing" and being smart can outsmart those guys and workers at that airlines that fired me and I'm in the chips now $$$$$$.
You see folks the hedge fund boys today hold about 8% or pretty close to 3 trillion of all your total tax deposits and credits in their private equity bank accounts and it was all made from, ' doing nothing " , but how does that old Ashop Fable story go ? sometimes, " nothing begets nothing"
Zionism is terrorism. It is also the ultimate anti-semitic ideology. The plan is to have as much land as they believe is their right to become a superpower. It has nothing to do with Judaism. Theodor Herzl said it himself:
"Our first object is... the obtaining of sovereignty, assured by international law, over a portion of the globe sufficiently large to satisfy our just requirements."
The "international law" he spoke about came to become true because to the US, still hegemonic, the only law is the law the US dictates. That's how they claim to be right, "defending themselves".
"Just requirements" is using a fantasy story of the Bible to justify supremacy. There is nothing just about supremacy over other peoples.
The UN is no better. I was watching the G20 speeches by Lula and Ramaphosa, and they are absolutely right.
Listening to the first part of the show, Private Equity is basically grift, right?
I recently saw the play American Psycho and listened to a podcast about the movie.
If you know the play/movie, that you can see the relation between Private Equity and psychopathy - one one ill of capitalism, the other exacerbated by it
“There’s a pattern here, Isiah and I break it down in a short video” | Barbara F Walter (4/22/26) Here Be Dragons: Warning Signs from the Edges of Democracy
“Trump’s cabinet picks and recent firings look chaotic, but look closer and strategy emerges. In this episode, we break down the concept of the glass cliff, analyze key cabinet members, and make the case that every move points towards November.”
Thank you Ralph. "What can we do about it?"...Americans could stop voting for this Red and Blue cabal.
If we stop voting for the Red or Blue half of the Gold Party we have to find something to vote for. If we vote for third parties or independent candidates that also take big money then we will only have three or four choices from the Gold Party instead of one or two.
Ralph has said that politicians want our votes more than big money to run their campaigns.
We can use this basic principle of democracy to demand that politicians do not take big money by demanding politicians run small donor campaigns and enforce this demand with our votes.
If there are no small donor candidates on the ballot in 2026 we can cast a write in vote to register a vote against the big money candidates on the ballot and to create and demonstrate demand for small donor candidates in 2028.
Just 10% of voters in 2026 participating in this strategy would inspire more citizens (maybe 20% or more) and some candidates to participate in 2028.
We should be able to get 10% in 2026 as around 90% of districts are gerrymandered so that the election is already decided for 2026.
If we start now we could begin electing small donor candidates in 2028 and even more in 2030.
Ralph said on Washington Journal (10-24-2018) that he would have me on the Radio Hour to discuss this strategy but has not done so yet.
Think of how many small donor candidates might be on the ballot in 2026 if we had started this back in 2018.
What we can do about it is tell Ralph you want him to discuss this strategy and encourage citizens and his network of activists to participate in this strategy in 2026.
This 10% would be made up of Democrat voters in Republican districts, Republican voters in Democrat districts, third party and independent voters in both of those kind of districts and maybe even some people that would not have voted in 2026.
This is not going to happen unless someone like Ralph helps. And Ralph is apparently not helping because not enough of his listeners are asking him to help.
As this is basic democracy in action if this doesn't work then democracy doesn't work . We won't know until we try it.
Ralph has said that citizens contacting legislators to let them know what you want them to do is part of what people should do so that should also work on Ralph.
Please help by letting Ralph know you want him to help organize citizens to utilize this basic principle of democracy he espoused in his statement about politicians wanting our votes more than big money to run their campaigns.
Thanks for the interviews. You had another similar interview with Gretchen Morgenson a few years ago: https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/p/predatory-capitalists
"Private equity", "hedge funds", and other similar extremely greedy and lawless international vulture-like companies, not only despoil the countries they prey on, but they also burn through many ivy league students, where they promise high wages but often require unethical and immoral business strategies for them to earn their keep. Just read the Rob Copeland book "The Fund" on Ray Dalio's operation in Westport and his bogus predicates spelled out in Dalio's book "Principles": https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/books/review/the-fund-rob-copeland.html
Comment on the book: "The key to long-term, outsized success in the hedge fund business is quite simple, no secret at all: the acquisition of non-public information. I spent about 10 years working as a consultant to a number of hedge funds, primarily providing tools for measuring and explaining portfolio performance,. That work provided me access not only to all the trading data but put in daily, close-quarters contact with numerous private investment managers, some of whom separated themselves, year after year, from the merely lucky and intelligent. I worked for one who was renowned in the San Francisco financial community for his ability to bully grown men and women to tears. He would latch onto someone at a company that was a target of his attention, and make them so miserable through his attentions that in desperation they would feed him inside financial and market information in the hope that he would go away. He was particularly good at finding low-level employees at companies that he was thinking of shorting. At another firm, one manager received anonymous copies of public company earnings reports, the night before the reports were published. This approach is no secret. The quantitative models, the high-speed trading, the research of public information, will all enable market-average performance. But if you want to be the best, you need to consider expanding your idea of research, to include using non-public information. Then let nothing stop you in the quest for that data."
Another;
"Men like this are bloated but cunning parasites. That’s what these men of hedge funds, Wall Street, investor groups are — and in their quest to siphon all wealth into their personal coffers, they’re destroying their host — the government services, protections and social programs we need to remain a healthy society with a large middle class. Schools, news media, banks, hospitals, nursing homes, real estate, dental offices — EVERYTHING is now controlled by private equity and hedge funds. We know what they’re doing and the IRS and congress regulations have the power to end these scammers, but I suspect the corruption in our government has become too entrenched."
And:
"I did some IT work at his CT offices, I swear it was cult like and very paranoid. I couldn’t even take a picture of a data port number, when in the IDF closet there were 4 people watching what I was looking at. And very reception area would offer you his book along with coffee or. Nuts."
And:
"Bottom feeders of vulture capitalism, contributing zero to society (actually strip-mining productive endeavors and feasting on the carcass), operating in a black box beyond the purview of regulators, creating tax law by corrupting public officials. Their wealth is generated through exploitation, rigging of financial, legal, and regulatory systems, operating in a grey zone of money laundering and transnational Ponzi schemes. Beyond the ability of any authority to regulate, this firm is a modern day pirate operation feasting on the 99% - leaving devastated communities and lives in its polluted wake. A just society would not allow this criminal operation to function, but ours has long ago been neutered by the billions spent by firms like this to capture every regulator and tax authority that might impede their path of social destruction."
Steve Cohen's operation in Shippan was tagged with insider trading charges but was ruthless enough to avoid prison time as the trader refused to talk about Cohen's involvement.
Just look at "Glassdoor" reviews, especially the one and two star reviews of companies such as "Bridgewater", where employees talk about stress so great that they are reduced literally to tears. Bridgewater hired James Comey and Jamie Gorelick to fend off sexual harassment and insider trading suits.
Thank you Ralph and team. Very interesting!
I had heard of private equity firms, but I was not sure what this meant. What I would like to have heard in this program is some specific examples of exactly, step by step, how these immoral profiteers do their dirty work.
I learned here that private equity firms are actually plunderers of businesses and possibly even of pension agencies and educational institutions, which could affect huge numbers of people in a way similar to the earlier subprime mortgage crisis.
Somehow these private equity firms arrange to use money from banks to invest in businesses without investing much of their own money. But how do well-educated, savvy people in charge of these banking institutions allow this to happen? Don't the banks lose money, when the business cannot repay the loan, and the private equity firms are not liable for the loss? Doesn't the reputation of these private equity firms, which are known to destroy businesses, follow them around?
How do these private equity firms manage to control the decisions of the business, allowing them to hollow out the business from the inside, making off with a suitcase full of money? Doesn't the business realize that they cannot give up control of their business to another company without their business facing negative repercussions? Do these predatory private equity firms shop for businesses in trouble, so they seem like a saviour when actually they are a vampire?
The devil is in the details. How can we turn to Congress for better legislation against such corruption, Ralph, when Congress is being bought and sold? I just heard one of the campaign speeches (the one from Atlanta) of a Democrat running for Senate in Georgia, Jon Ossoff, against fierce opposition, and I have hope.
Why can't the state of Connecticut tax carried interest as ordinary income instead of as capital gains? Who is Meagan Greenwell meeting with in Hartford and when?
On April 1, I presented to Governor Lamont a draft proposal to support a federal Direct Tax on capital to pay for the Iran War. Each state would be obligated to collect a tax in proportion to its population. Connecticut's share is about 1%.
The following is the first paragraph in the draft proposal:
This letter proposes a federal Direct Tax Act of 2026 modeled on the constitutional structure of the founding era and the federal Direct Tax of 1798, with Connecticut raising its apportioned share of a $200 billion national levy to fund the costs of the Iran war. The proposal rests on a simple principle: if the nation chooses war, the public should see the price of war directly, and each state should carry its apportioned constitutional share through taxes on property and wealth that can be valued administratively without individualized appraisal.
We are moving toward a new version of a feudal system. A small percentage of the population will own everything, and the masses will be forced to rent or lease everything. Most of the dry cleaners, HVAC repair people, printers, plumbers, dentists, and doctors have become employees of private equity. Communities wake up to find less local competition, higher costs, lower salaries, and worse services. Over time investment in the communities decrease because profits are extracted to provide the "owners" their income to live a life of leisure. When America had lots of independent small businesses the communities had distinctive flavors and numerous collaborators that kept the economy vibrant. Now we have chain restaurants, mega-retailers, and private equity owned shops. It doesn't matter where you live in the USA, it's becoming a homogenized, sterilized mediocrity without a soul.
I'm afraid you are right but maybe we can move towards a commune situation with mutual aide and then move to what - according to some - is the idea of communism and that others claim is something that Marx addressed: the end of capitalism will bring us communism. I cannot really elaborate because I haven't read enough to do so
Adriana, you might be interested in what Prof. Richard Woff has to say about this. He is an economist with the best credentials from Stanford, Harvard, and Yale, but he took a different path than capitalism. He is a Marxist, and a fascinating lecturer, too, and he supports worker co-ops. He believes worker co-ops are a way to reverse the absurd economic inequality we are experiencing in which appx. 1% of the people own 99% of the wealth. In a worker co-op, each employee is also the employer, so there is no separate employer class to exploit the employee, and great imbalances of wealth cannot occur, and ordinary people are much better off. He fascinates me because he is able to explain things so clearly. Prof. Wolff has been impersonated using AI, which is NOT the real Prof. Wolff I know and love. To assure that you get the real Prof. Wolff, visit his web site at Democracy@Work. Look for a program called Economic Update. He has many others, some exploring Marxism. Sign up to get his emails.
I know Prof. Wolf! I did corresponded with him and read some of his books. I agree with you , he explains things really well. He might have influenced how I see capitalism and a better future.
Now you sir is someone I had voted for and wished you’d be our president things would have been much different decades later but here we are sadly
Thank you all for your wonderful reporting!!!
Thanks for Megan Greenwall and Ralph Nader providing an understandable summary of Private Equity. Yes, "Corporate Raiders" should be revived as a 'headline' description. How about "Private Equity Equals Public Inequity" or simply, "Private Inequity", as well?
A story : remember the days when returns were more important than risk, risk was something you had to do when you sometimes didn't have a choice or you made a mistake.
Many Years ago a friend of mine made a big mistake while working for a large airline in a Dallas tx and bought to much jet fuel and his boss was about to fire him and he got lucky and the price of jet fuel when up and he sold it for a nice profit for the airlines.,, but he got fired anyway. I told him he made a nice hedge on that jet fuel and didn't know it . A few years later he moved to New York City and I met him many years later at the 21 and he said he started what he called a hedge fund.
You see ,Don everyone thinks about earning something from doing something, I figured if I buy and sell something at the right time I can make more by ," doing nothing" and being smart can outsmart those guys and workers at that airlines that fired me and I'm in the chips now $$$$$$.
You see folks the hedge fund boys today hold about 8% or pretty close to 3 trillion of all your total tax deposits and credits in their private equity bank accounts and it was all made from, ' doing nothing " , but how does that old Ashop Fable story go ? sometimes, " nothing begets nothing"
Good luck America have a great day my friends
Zionism is terrorism. It is also the ultimate anti-semitic ideology. The plan is to have as much land as they believe is their right to become a superpower. It has nothing to do with Judaism. Theodor Herzl said it himself:
"Our first object is... the obtaining of sovereignty, assured by international law, over a portion of the globe sufficiently large to satisfy our just requirements."
The "international law" he spoke about came to become true because to the US, still hegemonic, the only law is the law the US dictates. That's how they claim to be right, "defending themselves".
"Just requirements" is using a fantasy story of the Bible to justify supremacy. There is nothing just about supremacy over other peoples.
The UN is no better. I was watching the G20 speeches by Lula and Ramaphosa, and they are absolutely right.
Listening to the first part of the show, Private Equity is basically grift, right?
I recently saw the play American Psycho and listened to a podcast about the movie.
If you know the play/movie, that you can see the relation between Private Equity and psychopathy - one one ill of capitalism, the other exacerbated by it
Sharing this late, please advise Ralph and Team,
“There’s a pattern here, Isiah and I break it down in a short video” | Barbara F Walter (4/22/26) Here Be Dragons: Warning Signs from the Edges of Democracy
https://youtu.be/Fx3mJOq606s
“Trump’s cabinet picks and recent firings look chaotic, but look closer and strategy emerges. In this episode, we break down the concept of the glass cliff, analyze key cabinet members, and make the case that every move points towards November.”