I might well be biased since I do work in an investment bank that caters mainly to private equity clients, and having spent a decent amount working in a PE fund

I might well be biased since I do work in an investment bank that caters mainly to private equity clients, and having spent a decent amount working in a PE fund, but this article also conveniently focuses solely on the bad part of the industry. Of course, not all PE is perfect, and not all are the same. There are high leverage funds, debt funds, distressed investment funds, large cap funds investing billions of dollars, small cap funds financing companies worth just about 10m. The fund I worked for, for example, focused on buying only a few companies (3-4 portfolio businesses) and then building these up over 5-10 years to become market leaders, by investing in the companies capabilities both through add-on acquisitions and R&D spending. Of course, PE can also mean that in order to improve the company, some parts of it have to be restructured or shut down, but the blame for that cannot go only to the fund, but also to the management of that company letting divisions become lethargic. Not all PE is the same - some funds are bad, focusing on just stripping as much money out of a business as possible and then getting rid of whatever is left. But generally, PE's make most money with businesses that grow beyond their original scale, and innovate more than their rivals. Also, thanks to the investment time frame and relative freedom that investors give the funds, a lot of good can be done with capital, such as investments in emerging economies and local champions. The point is, the PE landscape is infinitely more complicated than just saying it is good or bad.