My article on private equity funds in Dissent magazine (Winter 2008) is now available on line.  I argue that PE funds are an important part of the institutional changes underway in modern capitalism.  I believe the critique that some in labor and on the left make of PE funds is misconceived.  Many argue that PE funds are part of something that is called “financialization,” which I think over emphasizes the role of the fictitious, or paper, side of the role of PE funds at the expense of understanding that PE funds reorganize the creation and appropriation of value.