I work in finance. I run several trading desk teams for an investment bank.

I’m “pro-finance, banking, and capitalism” as a rule.

But Private Equity and LBOs are cancerous to the economy.

A great example recently here in Australia was Sara Lee.

They were acquired a few years back by a NZ-based Private Equity firm who raised the debt to buy the business using the business itself as collateral.

So basically, they borrowed money and stuck the debt into the company.

Now it’s gone into administration, the workers are at risk, and the Private Equity firm’s exposure is basically nothing.

This kind of financial pokery jiggery needs to be eliminated from the system.

Cheap money exacerbated it, but banks and lenders need to be forced to stop lending money to corporate raiders without security.

This is an easy fix through simple regulation.

Our government, over successive administrations, have allowed some of the worst excesses of rogue capitalism from America to leech its way into Australia’s economy.

At some point, we need the government in this country to side with the middle class and working people because right now, no political party seems interested in doing that - it’s a race to pander to elites.