You don't know their names, but they own the house you rent. They own your hospitals, nurseries and care homes, the media you consume and the companies you work for. They even own the tools your union uses to fight back. Business is a contest - and they say their people are built to win. But when does competition become a struggle to the death?
For decades, private equity firms have infiltrated every corner of modern life. Wielding debt as a weapon, they push vital services into crisis. Their cover story: that this is merely the 'creative destruction' essential to growth. Old-school capitalists say they're dismantling everything that made our economies work.
The Asset Class penetrates a hidden empire of billion-dollar deals and covert financial warfare. From Copenhagen to San Francisco, Barcelona to the Yorkshire Dales, it follows the money, the ideological roots and the trail of destruction. What it finds is chilling: private equity isn't just reshaping the economy - it's selling out the foundations of Western society. The new owners think they can hide in the shadows. But the owned are fighting back.
9 April 2026 (UK)
23 June 2026 (US)
A master political story teller... The Asset Class is essential reading for politicians, city managers, policy makers, journalists, activists, and anyone seeking to understand what private finance is doing to everyday life across the globe – Wendy Brown, author of In The Ruins of Neoliberalism
Combining muckraking with moral clarity, Hettie O'Brien tells an utterly original story about how private equity targets people at their most vulnerable, sniffing out weakness to splinter what is left of the social democratic order. Illuminating and infuriating – Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayeks’s Bastards
O'Brien combines gripping storytelling with sharp observational wit and a profound care for social justice. This is essential investigative journalism – Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics
A must-read for anyone who wants to understand how this Frankenstein form of finance stacked the deck against the rest of us – Nancy Maclean, author of Democracy in Chains
Private equity has quietly taken control of the foundations of everyday life… O'Brien reveals its arcane dynamics by telling the stories of the fascinating - and often unscrupulous - characters at its heart. This is essential reading – Grace Blakeley, author of Vulture Capitalism
When Hettie O’Brien investigates, the apex predators of the global economy should rest a little less easy on their Learjets – Baroness Shami Chakrabarti
A dazzling investigation … the struggle to rebuild a decent society should start with this book – Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism
A superbly vivid journey through what deserves to be one of the greatest scandals of our age. The Asset Class shows we cannot understand the turbulence and injustice of the present without understanding private equity – Will Davies, author of Nervous States
Meticulously reported and clearly written . . . You might need a long walk to calm down after reading it – Dan Davies, author of The Unaccountability Machine
The Asset Class shows you who really rules the world, then it shows them fracking your granny. Read it if you want to know who precisely is to blame for, well, everything – Oliver Bullough, author of Everybody Loves Our Dollars
O'Brien has entered a hidden world and exposed its secrets. This is financial journalism at its best . . . utterly terrifying and too plausible for comfort – Peter Oborne, author of The Assault On Truth
A brilliant and penetrating analysis exposing the larceny that powers the private equity industry. This rollicking tale uncovers tricks that are ultimately so simple and brazen that the mind is repelled, and in the process shows a great undertow sapping our economies and feeding public rage – Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands