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PE & VC News

Does Private Equity Employment Respond to Corporate Profits?

July 27, 2015

Everyone knows that the private equity business is about making profits. Common sense would indicate that when corporate profits are growing strong across the board, employment in the private equity industry would also be going strong, and vice versa. Is this the case? Here’s a look at the connection between employment in the private equity industry […]

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A Look at Private Equity Employment Compared to Other Financial Sectors

July 13, 2015

Every financial professional is aware of a chart like the following. The following figure shows the month-over-month growth in employment in the U.S. Recently, job growth is the U.S. has been strong, with most of the recent months above 200K. The strength in the overall American labor market poses the question – how does private equity […]

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Is American Production Above or Below Trend?

June 29, 2015

In the world of private equity, a critical component of success involves evaluating what the trend is for a given industry or business. Among economic trends, there’s no bigger trend than GDP, a measure of all final production of goods and services. Is GDP, otherwise known as production, above or below trend? An Exponential Trend of Real […]

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Looking at Private Equity Deals by Federal Reserve Tightening Cycle

June 15, 2015

Unless the American economy completely unleashes in the next couple of months, the Federal Reserve is likely to raise the federal funds target rate sometime this year. The pending rate hike, at least if you believe indications from executives of the U.S. central bank, poses the question: what might a Fed rate hike mean for private […]

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Perhaps Sam Brownback is Right – Tax Cuts Are Boosting Kansas Employment Growth

May 18, 2015

Tax policy comes as second nature to investment bankers. Earlier this month, the Census Bureau its annual accounting of state government revenues. It is a survey of all finances related to state government spending. The data allows researchers to address, in a broad way, various debates in the tax policy world. Among those debates, the most […]

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Looking at Demographics and What It Might Mean for Private Equity

May 4, 2015

As a general rule, private equity professionals pay little attention to demographic shifts. That is, at least, on the surface. But, demographic shifts are certainly set to impact the makeup and nature of the private equity business. Generation Demographics As background, here’s a look at the projected population from 2015 to 2050 for the major generations. The […]

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Is There a Growing Gap in Private Equity Pay?

April 20, 2015

Pay in the private equity industry is on the rise. As is always the case in a highly competitive, human capital intensive industry, the question is: pay is on the rise for who? Looking at Some Broad Pay Issues Consider, for instance, the situation of Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwartzman. His annual base pay is $350,000, and […]

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Thinking About Early Stage Venture Capital Investments in 2015

April 6, 2015

By most measures, 2014 was a fairly positive year for the private equity industry, in particular early stage private equity (typically known as venture capital). The relatively decent performance of private equity over the past few years has some analysts wondering whether the industry is approaching a business cycle peak. The concern for an industry peak only […]

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How Long Can the Labor Market Keep Accelerating? Hint: It’s a While

March 23, 2015

There has been lots of chatter recently about the strength of the U.S. employment picture. The early March knockout employment report, at +295K net new jobs, seems to have increased the discussion about whether the employment picture is peaking. Is it? How much longer can the labor market keep accelerating? (As a note, acceleration means that the […]

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Is the Tech Industry in a Bubble?

February 23, 2015

Recently, chatter has focused on whether the technology industry is in a bubble. Is it? Individuals following say, home prices in San Francisco, one might get the impression that it is. Since bottoming in January 2012 at about $621K, the median home price in the Bay Area is now approaching $1.1 million, a growth of […]

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