iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI
When Wall Street money managers fall from grace, there's usually some kind of discernible ruckus: the wail of angry investors, the steady drone of thousands of lawyers filing cases, and the rush of doomer headlines in the financial press. But even as some of Wall Street's elite are getting decimated, you can barely hear a sound.
In the post-financial-crisis world of zero interest rates, private equity — a clubby world of investment firms that use leverage (as well as some equity) to purchase portfolio companies — was one of the few places on Wall Street that guaranteed investors yield. But after that decade of winning, the industry's fortunes have started to turn — though you probably won't hear too much about it.