Sep 8, 2026 · 1 hr · 12 segments
We're excited to introduce Private Credit Crisis, a new weekly podcast from The Capitol Forum examining the policy problems building inside the private credit industry. In this first episode…
Jim WooleryGuestTeddy DowneyHost
Josh KosmanHostAnd today, I'm excited to introduce a new podcast that we're going to be releasing every week.
The best way to explain the podcast is really in the vein of what we do with second requests.
Second request deals with monopoly problems, and the private credit crisis looks at problems in the world of private credit.
For those not familiar with the private credit industry, it's part of the private equity ecosystem.
At the Capital Forum, we think there is a bubble in the economy right now that was created by the private equity industry, which bought up a lot of portfolio companies.
You can read about this in the news, whether it's PE firms rolling up, doctors groups, software companies, children's sports leagues, HVAC servicing companies, supermarkets, pest control companies, and more.
You name it, and private equity has probably tried to roll it up, make some changes, whether it's layoffs or assuming more debt, and then they typically try to sell those assets off.
So when private equity portfolio companies couldn't get access to cheap loans from banks, PE firms just created their own subsidiaries to make loans to the portfolio companies.
For our purposes, that's what we're talking about when we discuss the private credit industry, loans made by PE firms to their own portfolio companies.
Private equity bought life insurance companies and had those insurance companies buy up those loans.
And insurance companies, when they go bankrupt, the policyholders, mainly retirees with annuities plans and taxpayers, are left footing the bill, not the private equity parent company.
The entire story involves trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, corrupt regulators, accounting shenanigans, bogus credit ratings, and a lot of other problems that are reminiscent of the 2008 global financial crisis.
For our first episode of Private Credit Crisis, which we're calling Lies, Loans, and Lawsuits, my colleague Josh Cosman and I sat down with Jim Woolery, Jim's a veteran attorney, and he walks us through the lawsuits that he is bringing on behalf of investors who allege that private equity firms are inflating the assets on their balance sheets and charging inflated fees for managing those assets, even as the performance of those assets is objectively deteriorating.
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And today, I'm excited to introduce a new podcast that we're going to be releasing every week.
The best way to explain the podcast is really in the vein of what we do with second requests.
Second request deals with monopoly problems, and the private credit crisis looks at problems in the world of private credit.
For those not familiar with the private credit industry, it's part of the private equity ecosystem.
At the Capital Forum, we think there is a bubble in the economy right now that was created by the private equity industry, which bought up a lot of portfolio companies.
You can read about this in the news, whether it's PE firms rolling up, doctors groups, software companies, children's sports leagues, HVAC servicing companies, supermarkets, pest control companies, and more.
You name it, and private equity has probably tried to roll it up, make some changes, whether it's layoffs or assuming more debt, and then they typically try to sell those assets off.
So when private equity portfolio companies couldn't get access to cheap loans from banks, PE firms just created their own subsidiaries to make loans to the portfolio companies.
For our purposes, that's what we're talking about when we discuss the private credit industry, loans made by PE firms to their own portfolio companies.
Private equity bought life insurance companies and had those insurance companies buy up those loans.
And insurance companies, when they go bankrupt, the policyholders, mainly retirees with annuities plans and taxpayers, are left footing the bill, not the private equity parent company.
The entire story involves trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, corrupt regulators, accounting shenanigans, bogus credit ratings, and a lot of other problems that are reminiscent of the 2008 global financial crisis.
For our first episode of Private Credit Crisis, which we're calling Lies, Loans, and Lawsuits, my colleague Josh Cosman and I sat down with Jim Woolery, Jim's a veteran attorney, and he walks us through the lawsuits that he is bringing on behalf of investors who allege that private equity firms are inflating the assets on their balance sheets and charging inflated fees for managing those assets, even as the performance of those assets is objectively deteriorating.