Greenwell offers stories that are textured, not one-note tales of woe ... Bad Company details how clichéd abstractions like “consolidation” and “efficiency” have given cover to real betrayals. The people in this book wanted only to raise their families and contribute to their communities. Instead they were unwittingly drawn into an opaque system of financial extraction and debt peonage, for which no amount of hard work was ever enough.
A deeply reported, briskly paced and highly disturbing account ... Greenwell has written an essential guide to an industry that operates largely in the shadows ... Despite her immersion in this predatory world, she remains surprisingly optimistic.
She helps readers understand this perplexing topic by sharing relatable stories. This book will appeal to those who are interested in business, economics and finance.
Greenwell’s debut does important work ... She carefully demonstrates the human cost of an industry playbook that prizes cutting workers, slashing services, and raising prices ... Greenwell also finds reason for hope in her subjects’ nascent activism ... An effective, humane look at financial practices hobbling venerable institutions.
A scathing indictment ... Such stories outrage, but Greenwell finds reason for hope in ordinary people pushing back against private equity’s worst abuses ... Greenwell also provides sound suggestions for reining in private equity, proposing legislation “requiring firms to stick with a company in order to make a profit instead of selling off its assets and shutting it down.” The result is a stark reminder of the human toll of corporate penny pinching.
