Down in Florida the private equity bigwigs are holding a conference--they're calling it "Super Return 2008"--fittingly taking place in the Blackstone owned Boca Raton Resort & Club. (You remember it as the place where Blackstone founder Steve Schwartzman offended everything Japanese.) Josh Harris, one of the founders of the Apollo Group, let loose with a rather dire prediction about the state of the economy.
Here's the dispatch from Peter Lattman:
"We don't think we've seen the bottom," he said, citing record-low consumer confidence, plummeting housing prices, a broken financial sector and an oil-price shock that has yet to work its way through the system. He said we should all brace ourselves for a nosedive in the economy and a broad-based distressed environment.
SuperReturn 2008: "We Should All Brace Ourselves for a Nosedive" [Deal Journal]
Posted by diablo, Jun 04, 2008 4:06PM
Of all the folks in the financial industry the PE guys are quite eager to talk down the economy more than the rest. Is this the way for them to lower the expectations so their investors don't give them so much grief?