Is Private Equity Cooked? | Last night, I went to the movie theater and saw Materialists. Some people have called it “poor man propaganda,” but I kinda loved it. And honestly, I sympathize with the filmmakers. They had the impossible task of making Pedro Pascal, of all people, undesirable. Their solution? Let’s just say it involved a secret Napoleon complex and — gasp!!! — a job in private equity.  Who would you choose: A broke cater waiter or a PE bro with a $12 million Tribeca penthouse who can buy you omakase? Source: A24, Materialists Wait. Since when did PE become such an “unattractive” career path? A mere 12 months ago, everyone was singing the “looking for a man in finance, trust fund, 6’5, blue eyes” song, but the public has since soured on the industry. Private equity is now “the primary villain of the US economy — responsible for the high cost of everything from housing to health care,” writes Allison Schrager. It hasn’t always been that way. As Allison says “many of the criticisms are unfair, as the presence of private equity investment is often a symptom rather than a cause of a struggling market or business.” But the industry has ballooned to a point where it’s bloated: “In 2003, private equity made up less than 4% of equity markets. Now it’s more than 10%. Assets under management grew exponentially during the 2010s and are now more than $5 trillion.” For a time, those assets brought in big returns. But in recent years, PE lost the pep in its step, resulting in subpar returns, fewer exits and fewer payouts. “The outlook isn’t much better, with higher interest rates making leverage more expensive and buyouts less profitable,” she writes. “Could it be that there is a limit on the size of an industry that deploys capital outside of public markets?” Read the whole thing to find out. On Friday, President Donald Trump’s financial disclosure forms revealed that he earned $57.7 million from the crypto venture he launched with his sons last year. On Monday, his sons launched Trump Mobile, a new “transformational” cell phone company that sounds eerily similar to Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile. And on Tuesday, we learned that India’s richest man is throwing money at Trump’s real estate business. Will this family’s thirst for money-making side hustles ever subside? Probably not. “Trump has always been a human shingle, willing to license his name on almost anything to almost any bidder,” writes Timothy L. O’Brien (free read). He’s raked in tens of millions of dollars in royalty payments while he’s been in office: Trump watches. Trump Bibles. Trump coffee table books. Trump sneakers. Trump perfumes. Trump NFTs. There are even Trump guitars. “Although the Trumps and the White House emphasize that Trump’s holdings are in a trust, it’s a trust overseen by his eldest son, Donald Jr.,” Tim explains. And Donald Jr. and his brother are trying their best to turn the White House into a Walmart Supercenter. With the cell phone announcement, Tim says “the sons go out of their way to invoke Trump’s political movement by noting that Trump Mobile — a startup phone service, mind you — is ‘building on the movement to put America first’ … what they are really putting first is their wallets.” Case in point? The $499 gold-colored smartphone they claim will be “MADE IN THE USA” is probably gonna come from a factory in China. | 
