The Asset Class by Hettie O’Brien review – the hidden hand of private equity

From utilities to care homes, how capital’s most rapacious form yet is taking over the public realmThis is a dark tale. In its opening scene the author is in conversation with a textile artist in her workshop under the arches in Deptford – arguably one of the last neighbourhoods that credibly sustains London’s claim to be a city that supports creativity. Guardian journalist Hettie O’Brien listens to her talk about rising rents as the railway’s lands are sold to new, invisible owners. The arches have become assets to be traded, and as a result the artist will soon be forced to ply her own trade elsewhere. Behind this story, and many others, lies the hand of private equity. The vast profits reaped by investors, and the toll on society, are all described here in lucid and highly readable prose.Private equity partnerships are groups of individual and institutional investors with deep pockets. O’Brien traces their rise following the era of deregulation inaugu