A group of private equity firms had founded the Private Equity Council to serve as:

a leading advocate for the domestic and international private equity industry as well as a resource for those seeking to better understand the industry’s role in the rapidly evolving global economy. To that end, the Council will launch research, public affairs and government outreach initiatives to explain the multiple contributions private equity makes – to investors, to companies and their employees, to the economic well-being of communities and to public employee pension funds.

I suppose it would be rude for the PEC to point out to Congress and the SEC that government's populist meddling with financial markets in the form of SOX, antiquated accounting standards, class action lawsuits, compensation restrictions, and other nostrums is making it increasingly expensive and risky to operate a public company. Hence capital is fleeing the public markets for the haven of private funds.

It would make little sense to respond to this problem by extending the scope of bad regulations, and thus render private U.S. equity markets as sclerotic as public ones are becoming. That would only send the smart money fleeing again, this time overseas, to London, Hong Kong, and Singapore.