The subset of firms affected by private debt may be a small part of the economy, but the PE business model is just an extreme form of the extractive model that pervades the economy. The rise of private debt is a setback in the fight against this model and its harms more generally. 4/4

This means degraded goods and services, immiseration of workers, layoffs and consolidation that will increase the kind of economic misery that is weighing down Biden's re-election chances and making a 2nd Tr*mp term more likely. 3/4

In the worst case the private-debt-driven PE business model could cause a cascade of defaults that would require Fed crisis actions. But even well short of that, this model will force many businesses to become worse and worse as they slash costs to pay creditors. 2/4

We should worry about the private debt boom. A brief 🧵 (1/4) www.wsj.com/finance/inve...