{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260529T161654Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982191295?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1982191295","authors":["Gretchen Morgenson","Joshua Rosner"],"book_id":"9781982191290","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/these-are-the-plunderers-1982191295","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982191290.jpg?v=20260529T161654Z%3A2026-05-29T17%3A17%3A38Z","description":"A Wall Street Journal Bestseller Pulitzer Prize­­­–winning and New York Times bestselling financial journalist Gretchen Morgenson and financial policy analyst Joshua Rosner investigate the insidious world of private equity and Wall Street corporate takeovers in this “masterpiece of investigative journalism” (Christopher Leonard, bestselling author of Kochland )—revealing how it puts our entire economy and us at risk. Much has been written about the widening gulf between rich and poor and how our style of capitalism has failed to provide a living wage for so many Americans. But nothing has fully detailed the outsized role a small cohort of elite financiers has played in this inequality. Pulitzer Prize­–winning journalist and bestselling author Gretchen Morgenson, with coauthor Joshua Rosner, unmask the small group of celebrated Wall Street financiers, and their government enablers, who use excessive debt and dubious practices to undermine our nation’s economy for their own enrichment: private equity. These Are the Plunderers traces the thirty-year history of corporate takeovers in America and private equity’s increasing dominance. Morgenson and Rosner investigate some of the biggest names in private equity, exposing how they buy companies, load them with debt, and then strip them of assets and profits. All while prosecutors and regulators stand idly by. The authors show how companies absorbed by private equity have worse outcomes for everyone but the financiers: employees are more likely to lose their jobs or their benefits; companies are more likely to go bankrupt; patients are more likely to have higher health care costs; residents of nursing homes are more likely to die faster; towns struggle when private equity buys their main businesses, crippling the local economy; and school teachers, firefighters, medical technicians, and other public workers are more likely to have lower returns on their pensions because of the fees private equity extracts from their investments. In other words: we are all worse off because of private equity. These Are the Plunderers is a “meticulous and devastating takedown of a powerful force in Western capitalism” (Brad Stone, bestselling author of Amazon Unbound ) that exposes the greed and pillaging in private equity, revealing the many ways these billionaires have bled the economy, and, in turn, us.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781982191290","publication_date":"20240507","publisher":"Simon & Schuster","slug":"these-are-the-plunderers","subtitle":"How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—america","title":"These Are the Plunderers"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"BUS017010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Private Equity","score":0.8614,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BUS070140","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Financial Services","score":0.7587,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL042060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Capitalism & Markets","score":0.7541,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"BUS017010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Private Equity","score":0.8614,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"BUS070140","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Financial Services","score":0.7587,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL042060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Capitalism & Markets","score":0.7541,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BUS017010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Private Equity","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BUS023000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Economic History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC050000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Social Class","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Private Equity","score":0.8614,"slug":"private-equity"},{"label":"Financial Services","score":0.7587,"slug":"financial-services"},{"label":"Capitalism & Markets","score":0.7541,"slug":"capitalism-markets"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in investigative journalism on finance and capitalism","Those seeking detailed analysis of private equity's impact on the economy"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Brendan Ballou"],"book_id":"9781541702103","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781541702103.jpg?v=20260529T161654Z%3A2026-05-29T17%3A17%3A38Z","score":22.2815,"title":"Plunder","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781541702103"},{"authors":["Hettie O'Brien"],"book_id":"9781538766569","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781538766569.jpg?v=20260529T161654Z%3A2026-05-29T17%3A17%3A38Z","score":22.1508,"title":"The Asset Class","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781538766569"},{"authors":["Megan Greenwell","Dan Bittner","Dey Street Books"],"book_id":"9780063299351","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780063299351.jpg?v=20260529T161654Z%3A2026-05-29T17%3A17%3A38Z","score":21.8585,"title":"Bad Company","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780063299351"},{"authors":["John Coates"],"book_id":"9798987053546","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9798987053546.jpg?v=20260529T161654Z%3A2026-05-29T17%3A17%3A38Z","score":20.9447,"title":"The Problem of Twelve","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9798987053546"},{"authors":["James M. Kocis","James C. Bachman IV","Austin M. Long III","Craig J. Nickels"],"book_id":"9780470421895","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780470421895.jpg?v=20260529T161654Z%3A2026-05-29T17%3A17%3A38Z","score":17.2242,"title":"Inside Private Equity","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780470421895"},{"authors":["Dambisa Moyo"],"book_id":"9780374533212","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780374533212.jpg?v=20260529T161654Z%3A2026-05-29T17%3A17%3A38Z","score":17.2031,"title":"How the West Was Lost","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780374533212"},{"authors":["Ari Fliakos","Yoni Appelbaum","Random House Audio","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9780593449295","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593449295.jpg?v=20260529T161654Z%3A2026-05-29T17%3A17%3A38Z","score":16.0844,"title":"Stuck","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593449295"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:books about private equity"],"label":"About","score":0.0975,"slug":"about"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: private equity, economic inequality, corporate takeovers.","Pacing: steady blend of plot and character.","Reading lane: Private Equity and Financial Services."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.9,"pacing":"steady","reader_fit":["Readers interested in investigative journalism on finance and capitalism","Those seeking detailed analysis of private equity's impact on the economy"],"themes":["private equity","economic inequality","corporate takeovers"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":979,"goodreads_reviews_count":122,"quality_score":0.9076}}