The problem lies in where the money comes from the execute taking the company private. A big bank will issue the debt, then peddle the debt as AAA rated into all of America's 401k's via their friends at the brokerages. You think the banks are just sitting on those debts hoping to make it to maturity?
And it's never the PE firm that owes the debt, they're able to get paid back by the thing they buy, and that shell owes the debt. The losses are socialized among the public.
Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. There's no way debt from a leveraged buyout is going to be rated anywhere close to AAA. The leveraged buyouts of Twitter and Toy's R Us were funded by junk bonds.
You think the banks are so stupid that they just let PE firms saddle them with a bunch of debt and walk away? Bank PE loans are almost always senior loans, meaning the loan has to be completely repaid before you can start distributing dividends.
I don't think that's going to walk you through all the steps, but it shows you there's a market for buyout bonds, aka, the bonds that pay the PE firms back so they saddle the buyout debt onto the companies themselves.
There's no shortage of 'funds' that buy this garbage. When a bond has a certain credit rating, it's going to get sucked up into the funds, and those funds aren't capitalized by Warren Buffett, they get cash from Joe and Jane Doe's 401k.
And it's never the PE firm that owes the debt, they're able to get paid back by the thing they buy, and that shell owes the debt. The losses are socialized among the public.