Toys R Us lost to Amazon, not Wall Street

In his column “Amazon didn't kill Toys R Us, greedy Wall Street profiteers did it,” Rep. Bill Pascrell unfairly attacks the entire field of private equity. Private equity firms in America bought and built around 35,000 companies in recent years including some of the nation’s most successful retailers, such as Dollar General, the Container Store and Michaels. To attack the private equity field on a single transaction is unfair.

Retail sales at big box and depart- ment stores have fallen every year between 2006 and now, from approximately $252 billion to approximately

$150 billion. Amazon has grown by over

2,000% in market value at the same time. Toys R Us was swept up in the problems of big box retailers. However, the private equity industry as a whole has created and supported thousands of jobs, and generated billions of dollars of gains for American retirees.

Mike Sommers, president and CEO American Investment Council Washington, D.C.