I'm simplifying. If you want more detail, here it is.

Much corporate behavior studied in the vein of management conflicts of interest relates to executive compensation and other benefits that may or may not contribute to personal tax base.

Er, yes. Problems include "pay for volatility". If the CEO gets an option grant at market every year, and the stock price is flat, the option is worthless. If there's huge volatility, the option can be exercised at a peak, but is costless in a down year. McKinsey has a nice article on this: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/documents/m...

While leveraged buyouts are by no means dead, PE is far more than LBOs. The industry predates and has long outlived the 80s LBO boom. The term is a broad umbrella over many different kinds of operators leveraging (or suffering under) various features of our tax system.

Seldom does "private equity" mean an actual cash purchase by a private party. There's usually debt involved, often taken on by the business being bought. There's also usually some tax gimmick involved. It's interesting how often a business turns around after going private, even with the same management team. See this article on Dell, a year after going private: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102026551

Debt and equity still enjoy different rights in liquidation ... But debt and equity still confer different rights to affect operations.

Yes, debt and equity are not the same thing. But they're a lot closer than they used to be. Here's a piece on startup financing, comparing convertible debt vs. preferred equity. (http://mintonlawgroup.com/?p=173) The classic property of debt is that there is a bounded upside; the best that could happen was that the creditor got their money back with interest. With convertible debt, if the company does well, or even just gets another round of funding, the loan can be converted to stock and the creditor can win big. If the company fails, as creditors they're ahead of all equity holders and maybe even general creditors. It's also not unusual for creditors to demand a seat or seats on the board, even if they don't have equity.

It is difficult to speak of stock buybacks out of context; their use is varied, from purely financial to entirely structural.

Yes, their use is varied. But about 87% of US corporate borrowing since 2009 is for stock buybacks or dividends. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/corporations-cant-sto...). This reflects the low, low interest rates the Fed is offering. Equity to debt conversion is so tempting.

It is also difficult to make tax arguments out of context.

Most tax arguments for political campaign purposes are over tax rates over time. There's less public discussion over what is taxed at which rate. That, though, is what a sizable fraction of K Street lobbyists spend their time on. See "http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/business/tax-lobby-works-t..., which notes, on tax breaks, "If you are not at the table, you are on the menu". Relative tax rates for alternatives drive many business decisions. Absolute rates, less so. Over the years, capital gains tax rates have gone up and down without affecting capital spending comparably. See "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_gains_tax_in_the_Unite..., the graph for note 17.

(I suspect I'm boring everyone to death at this point, so I'll stop.)