Private Equity: Economist in White Suit Talks
According to The New York Observer, the Blackstone principals were not on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange when their IPO opened.
But The Man in The White Suit was. Tom Wolfe, legendary author of among others The Bonfire of the Vanities was making his first visit to the Exchange floor.
“All the years I’ve been in New York, I’ve never been on the floor of the Stock Exchange. So, a friend of mine, who knows a member, got me invited. I’m walking around and I see these television cameras. Somebody in the television crew spots me. I don’t even know where he was from. So, he says to me, ‘What do you think of this Blackstone I.P.O.?’ I’m joking, I say, ‘I think it’s the end of capitalism as we know it.’”
