So, which version of private equity is true?
Despite the chainsaw-wielding corporate evildoer on the cover of this week's Bloomberg Business Week the magazine presents a much kinder, gentler version of private equity.
The new, public, supersized version of private equity is a much headier mission than Mr. Kravis and Mr. Roberts, both 64, dreamed up when they left Bear Stearns to open their own shop in 1976 with their other co-founder, Jerome Kohlberg Jr.
Romney's version of private equity posits that only a hostile "turn-around" can rescue an industry in crisis - it values only fear, not trust.
But Sorkin is so intent on confirming the cartoon version of private equity, which the Times has had a hand in creating, that he ends up all over the place.
A more collectivist version of the equity app could orchestrate the old trick of the slowdown strike, allowing workers, in unison, to elongate and increase the frequency of their Pomodoro breaks until the company agrees to a wage increase or an appropriate ESOP arrangement.
Both the House and Senate versions of the Equity Act, meanwhile, still sit in committee.
On the surface, the new funds may seem a poor man's version of the private equity funds that have generated double-digit returns since the 1980's.
Indeed, this version of the private equity business is exactly the opposite: improving a company's operations instead of turning to financial engineering to squeeze out performance.
So-called auto title loans — the motor vehicle version of a home equity loan — are growing rapidly in California and 24 other states where lax regulations have allowed them to flourish in recent years.
