654. Is the Public Ready for Private Equity?

A Trump executive order is giving retail investors more access to private markets. Is that a golden opportunity — or fool’s gold?

• SOURCES:• Elisabeth de Fontenay, (law.duke.edu/fac/defontenay) professor of law at Duke University.
• Steven Kaplan (chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/k/steven-ne…), professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the University of Chicago.

• RESOURCES:• "Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors (whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/de…)-investors/)," (The White House, 2025).
• "The (Heterogeneous) Economic Effects of Private Equity Buyouts (pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.20…)," by Steven J. Davis, John Haltiwanger, Kyle Handley, Ben Lipsius, Josh Lerner, and Javier Miranda (Management Science, 2025).
• "Risk-Adjusted Returns of Private Equity Funds: A New Approach (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=41…)," by Arthur G. Korteweg and Stefan Nagel (The Review of Financial Studies, 2025).
• "The Effects of Management Buyouts on Operating Performance and Value (colab.ws/articles/10.1016%2F0304-405x%2889%299…)," by Steven Kaplan (Journal of Financial Economics, 1989).

• EXTRAS:• "The Biden Policy That Trump Hasn't Touched (freakonomics.com/podcast/the-biden-policy-that…)," by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
• "Should Companies Be Owned by Their Workers? (freakonomics.com/podcast/should-companies-be-o…)" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
• "Do You Know Who Owns Your Vet? (freakonomics.com/podcast/do-you-know-who-owns-…)" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
• "Are Private Equity Firms Plundering the U.S. Economy? (freakonomics.com/podcast/are-private-equity-fi…)" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

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