The Setup
How Wall Street Plotted the Perfect Crime
No alarms were triggered. No headlines screamed.
There was no raid, no getaway car, no televised trial.
But across America, a silent heist was already underway.
The clues were scattered in plain sight:
Shuttered toy stores.
Empty shopping plazas.
Small-town hospitals closing their doors.
Workers showing up one morning to find their jobs — and pensions — gone.
At first, it was easy to explain away.
“That’s just the market,” they said.
“Amazon is killing retail,” they shrugged.
“Healthcare is complicated.”
But beneath the surface, something more deliberate was unfolding.
A new kind of predator had emerged — one that didn’t need to invent, build, or serve.
Private equity firms had found a way to hijack the real economy, stripping value from companies, communities, and workers without ever facing consequences.
They would buy healthy businesses, saddle them with crushing debt, extract every ounce of cash they could, and abandon the wreckage — often while walking away with fortunes.
It was the perfect crime.
Legal. Invisible. Systematic.
And it would quietly help unravel the economic foundations that millions of Americans had spent generations building.
Today, in False Promises, we began with Unraveling Pax Americana — tracing how short-term thinking, corruption, and political cowardice are actively weakening America’s standing in the world.
The heist unfolding inside corporate America mirrors this collapse.
While Washington is chasing quick wins and easy slogans, private equity firms are dismantling the companies that once formed the backbone of American life:
The local retailers that anchored neighborhoods.
The hospitals that kept rural America alive.
The manufacturers that provided stable, middle-class jobs.
These businesses weren’t collapsing under the weight of global competition or innovation.
They were deliberately targeted — stripped for cash, loaded with debt, and left to fail.
Because when trust crumbles and grifters run the show, the only thing left to do is loot the place before the lights go out.
In this series, we’ll trace the blueprint of the heist:
The tools they used.
The targets they chose.
The victims they left behind.
Because America didn’t lose Toys R Us, JoAnn Fabrics, your local hospitals, or hundreds of other businesses by accident.
They were sold for parts.
And the getaway is still happening.
Coming up tomorrow:
The Playbook: How to Gut a Company and Get Away With It.
(Once you see how it works, you’ll never look at a “buyout” the same way again.)