These are worrying times. The boom in private equity, driven in part by the hunger of mutual and super funds looking for big returns, low interest rates and regulatory constraints of public corporations, is ushering in a new era of greed.

BusinessWeek provides us with the alarming details of the tricks private equity outfits are using to gouge corporations in the piece Gluttons At The Gate.

Read it and weep. These are the champions of instant gratification, loading firms up with monstrous debt and finding all sorts of creative ways to extract fees.

As Alan kohler, one of Australia's strongest financial commentators points out in his latest piece, it's producing a fundamental shift in the way capital markets operate. And that's a dangerous thing because it's a boom based on debt, greed and excess.

The thing about greed is it's not sustainable. As the BusinessWeek piece points out, there are profound social costs here with job losses and investors losing out with private equity-backed IPOs tanking.

The greed is also self-destructive and hazardous because it pushes people into taking bigger risks, and breaking rules.

We can expect to see private equity executives coming under the spotlight in future fraud investigations.