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Private equity, as a concept, just means a firm or group of people that owns something. We're posting these comments right now on a website owned by a private equity firm. Technically if I sell my lawn service to some guy with an LLC it's private equity.

Private Equity, as a distinct industry, is fully engaged in looting of the type contemplated by the principal-agent problem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal–agent_problem

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not sure what point you're making here, but my point was that there is room for little PE, but not big PE, because little PE can have the effect of making capital more efficient for the overall economy. it's the same with arbitrage--a little arbitrage is good for the economy, but large, systemic arbitrage is extractive for no overall benefit.

the principal-agent problem emerges in any business where professional managers are employed (which usually happens when a business gets too big for its britches), so it's not PE-specific.

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