The Vampire Economy: How Private Equity is Sucking the Blood out of the American Dream

It all began in 2019 at DeadSpin where Megan Greenwell was editor-in-chief. She had her dream job at the sports publication she'd always loved, leading a profitable digital media company with a devoted readership. Then the curse of private equity arrived. Within three months, everything collapsed. As Greenwell argues in her new book, Bad Company, she was pushed out, her entire staff followed, and the site was eventually sold to a Maltese gambling operation. What should have been a routine business acquisition became a personal awakening. Greenwell realized she'd witnessed something much larger than corporate mismanagement—she'd seen how private equity is producing avampire economy sucking the blood out of the American Dream. five takeaways 1. Private Equity Violates Free Market Principles Greenwell argues that PE actually corrupts capitalism rather than representing it—citing Milton Friedman's own exceptions for public services like healthcare and education, which are now PE's biggest targets. 2. The Debt Transfer Loophole Creates Perverse Incentives In leveraged buyouts, PE firms load companies with 70-80% debt but transfer responsibility to the acquired company, allowing firms to profit even when businesses fail—as happened with Toys"R"Us. 3. Workers Rarely Know PE Owns Their Employer Until It's Too Late Most employees discover private equity ownership only when everything falls apart, because the company name on their paycheck remains the same while control shifts to financial engineers. 4. The Vampire Effect Goes Beyond Individual Companies PE isn't just killing businesses—it's hollowing out entire communities, from rural hospitals in Wyoming to local newspapers, destroying the infrastructure that sustains small American towns. 5. Solutions Exist at State and Local Levels While federal regulation remains unlikely, progress is happening through state laws (like Massachusetts healthcare regulations), pension fund pressure campaigns, and nonprofit alternatives that prioritize sustainability over shareholder value. Megan Greenwell is an American journalist, editor, and writer with extensive experience across print and digital media. She was the first female editor-in-chief of Deadspin and editor of Wired.com Background & Education: Greenwell grew up in Berkeley, California. Her mother is an Episcopal priest who currently serves as the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati. She attended Berkeley High School, where she was a reporter for the school newspaper and graduated from Columbia University (Barnard College) in 2006, where she was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Spectator Career Highlights: * Started as a staff writer at The Washington Post, covering education, philanthropy, and the war in Iraq, including a three-month stint at the paper's Baghdad bureau * Was part of The Washington Post team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting WikipediaMegangreenwell * Worked as managing editor of GOOD Magazine, inaugural features editor at New York magazine's The Cut, and senior editor of ESPN The Magazine * Served as executive features editor for Esquire.com before becoming the fifth and first female editor-in-chief of Deadspin in 2018 * Later worked as editor of Wired.com and interim editor-in-chief of WIRED Current Work: She's now a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn and deputy director of the Princeton Summer Journalism Program PrincetonMegangreenwell. Her book "Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream" was published by HarperCollins on June 10, 2025 Personal: Greenwell is married to David Heller, an assistant professor of internal medicine and global health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe