How Private Equity State Capitalism Consumes Democracy

“This isn’t a crisis. It’s a business model.” From Wall Street boardrooms to White House press rooms, a new power system is remaking the world—and calling it freedom. This is Private Equity State Capitalism (PESC): where governments become investment portfolios that hollow out democracy, and public pain becomes private profit. In analysis, James E. Paige, Jr. and Jerome S. Paige reveal how PESC consumes everything in its path—from schools and housing to memory and resistance—while masking its violence behind market logic and moral spectacle. Why do disasters always lead to privatization? What links Trump’s chaos to global authoritarianism? How can we resist a system that wants us confused, divided, and compliant? Drawing on history, lived experience, and a robust five-part resistance framework, this book is a blueprint for recognizing the hostile takeover—and reclaiming the future. You are not imagining it. The system is rigged. But you are not powerless. You are the strategy.