When you dial 911 and Wall Street answers

New York

SINCE the 2008 financial crisis, private equity firms, the "corporate raiders" of an earlier era, increasingly have taken over an array of civic and financial services that are central to everyday American life, according to a study by The New York Times.

Today, people interact with private equity when they dial 911, pay their mortgage, play a round of golf or turn on the kitchen tap for a glass of water.