Mamdani’s appointment of Lina Khan a warning to private equity, experts say

Ex-FTC chair was among first to go after practice of folding local firms into larger ones leading to higher prices

Experts say New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s selection of Lina Khan, the former Federal Trade Commission chair, for his transition team acts as a warning to private equity firms in the state that have raised rents and monopolized local healthcare industries.

Throughout the US, private equity has increasingly monopolized industries through the practice of “roll ups,” acquiring many small local firms and rolling them into one larger firm, giving them power to simultaneously raise prices and lower quality.