To demonstrate that I'm not an economist: PE is a more specific than just private company. Boeing sold its Wichita division to an "investment firm". An invest

To demonstrate that I'm not an economist: PE is a more specific than just private company. Boeing sold its Wichita division to an "investment firm". An investment firm is essentially a company that buys and sells companies. Typically they're focused on short-term profits to juice the stock price before it's sold. Spirit was created and sold to the investment firm (Onex) in 2006, and Onex turned around and sold its the last of its stake in Spirit in 2014. Onex got over $3 billion for their initial $375 million stake in Spirit. The cost, as we're rediscovering, is that quality of Spirit's product went to shit and the long-term viability of Spirit is in question.