With private equity predators circling British supermarket chain Sainsbury and the monster buyout of Equity Office Properties, the biggest landlord in the United States outside of the US Government finally sealed, the criticism of the market's new kings are getting louder.

The Economist details some of those concerns in this piece The Uneasy Crown, republished here in full in CFO.com. With regulators getting nervous, it might well be a matter of time before the private equity sector is hit with its own Sarbanes-Oxley, warns The Economist.

Sure, private equity has advantages and benefits. Private companies have a competitive advantage because private equity investors will wait for several years in order to maximise their profits. That gives company managers the time they need to put in place long-term strategies without worrying about how the market will receive their next earnings report. More the point, it can help companies in need of finance or needing a radical restructure.

The downside is that the term "private equity" is actually misnomer. There's not much equity there at all, and the players aren't that private. In the 1980s, it used to be called the leveraged buy-out. That is until the buy-out firms found they had paid too much in the 80s boom and big financiers like Michael Milken went to jail. And what we call private equity is actually only a thin slice of equity. These deals are really about debt and fees. No shortage of advisers and investment banks getting huge fees as part of the deal. And let's face it, in five years time when the company is put back on the market those investment banks will be putting out their hand for more transaction fees. On top of that, there is a real risk of the market over-heating.

In Australia at the moment, concerns are mounting about a private equity consortium bid for the nation's iconic airline Qantas. There are calls from Government members and from unionists to block the sale but they better not hold their breath.

I look at those issues here.