We are in the middle of an epic credit bubble, in my opinion, the likes of which I haven’t seen in my career in private equity.
– Joseph Baratta, Global Head of Private Equity at the Blackstone Group
According to CNBC, the above statement was made this past Thursday at the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst Conference in New York City. While I certainly can’t disagree with his sentiments, I do find it a bit bizarre coming from someone so high up at Blackstone. More than any other firm, Blackstone has been aggresively buying up real estate all over the U.S. in all cash bids, playing a huge role in inflating another housing bubble. A bubble in which the average citizenry is being outbid by Blackstone and other private equity firms, and then in turn is forced to rent housing from Wall Street. Not only that, remember I highlighted back in July that Blackstone “is preparing to expand its bet on the housing recovery by lending to other landlords.”
The oligarchs are still dancing…
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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Ultimately, that was freshly minted Fed money that Blackstone was playing with. And I have no doubt that they’ve securitized many of the properties and sold the reverse mortgage type notes to the usual suspects–pension and 401(k) money market funds.
Looks like that bet is going south. I hope they choke on those homes.