The Case for and Against Private Equity

This May 29, 2012, long-form (52 min.) interview and listener call-in radio program played on the WQED-San Francisco Forum show. Interviewees:

• Sebastian Mallaby, contributing editor for the Financial Times, and director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations
• Colin C. Blayton, director of the Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
• Eileen Appelbaum, senior economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research; and EPRN researcher

Mallaby wrote a May 24, 2012, Financial Times article, "Mr. Obama, Stop the Attack on Private Equity" that served as the impetus for the WQED interview show. Here's the WQED intro to the interview: "Private equity has become a hot topic in the presidential election, with both President Obama and Mitt Romney hurling barbs over the issue. But what's the truth beneath the political rhetoric? We discuss the advantages and pitfalls to a business that makes some people very wealthy."

Host: Michael Krasny