The Asset Class by Hettie O'brien

The Asset Class by Hettie O'brien

'FINANCIAL JOURNALISM AT ITS BEST . . . UTTERLY TERRIFYING' PETER OBORNE

'PART WAKE-UP CALL, PART FINANCIAL THRILLER' SHAMI CHAKRABARTI

A thrilling, eye-opening investigation into private equity, a secretive wing of the finance industry that is so relentlessly destructive, it could have been created to undermine our way of life
You don't know their names, but they own the house you rent. They own your hospitals, nurseries and care homes, the media you consume and the companies you work for. They even own the tools your union uses to fight back. Business is a contest - and they say their people are built to win. But when does competition become a struggle to the death?

For decades, private equity firms have infiltrated every corner of modern life. Wielding debt as a weapon, they push vital services into crisis. Their cover story: that this is merely the 'creative destruction' essential to growth. Old-school capitalists say they're dismantling everything that made our economies work.

In The Asset Class, reporter Hettie O'Brien penetrates a hidden empire of billion-dollar deals and covert financial warfare. From Copenhagen to San Francisco, Barcelona to the Yorkshire Dales, she follows the money, the ideological roots and the trail of destruction. What she finds is chilling: private equity isn't just reshaping the economy - it's selling out the foundations of Western society.

The new owners think they can hide in the shadows. But the owned are fighting back.

'DEFTLY LIFTS THE CURTAIN ON A MURKY WORLD OF GREED AND DESTRUCTION' DANNY DORLING

'DAZZLING' HA-JOON CHANG
'ESSENTIAL' GRACE BLAKELEY
'WILD' JOLYON MAUGHAM

A brilliant and penetrating analysis exposing the larceny that powers the private equity industryThis rollicking tale uncovers tricks that are ultimately so simple and brazen that the mind is repelled, and in the process shows a great undertow sapping our economies and feeding public rage -- NICHOLAS SHAXSON, author of THE FINANCE CURSE
Combining muckraking with moral clarity, Hettie O'Brien tells an utterly original story about how private equity targets people at their most vulnerable, sniffing out weakness to splinter what is left of the postwar social democratic order. Illuminating and infuriating -- QUINN SLOBODIAN, author of HAYEK'S BASTARDS
A superbly vivid journey through what deserves to be one of the greatest scandals of our age. The Asset Class shows we cannot understand the turbulence and injustice of the present without understanding private equity -- WILLIAM DAVIES, author of NERVOUS STATES
The Asset Class is a riveting page-turner; it reads like a thriller that is also deeply educational and masterfully accessible. I will be recommending it to anyone - my students, colleagues, family - who wants to make sense of the murky new owners of their university halls, place of work or utilities provider -- ROSIE COLLINGTON, author of THE BIG CON
In this truly brilliant and deeply disturbing analysis, Hettie O'Brien opens our eyes to the destructive forces of leveraged finance and the investors whose fortunes keep rising thanks to their embrace by governments" -- KATHARINA PISTOR, author of THE CODE OF CAPITAL

Hettie O'Brien is a journalist at the Guardian, where she writes for the Guardian Long Read. She previously worked at the New Statesman and as a reporter in Washington covering the Federal Trade Commission. She lives in London.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781399619288
ISBN 10	1399619284
Title	The Asset Class
Author	Hettie O'brien
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Orion Publishing Co
Year published	2026-04-09
Number of pages	320
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.