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.’”

“But now that I’ve said it, I’ve come up with an ex post facto rationalization.”

“Joseph Schumpeter, the economist, once said that stocks and bonds are evaporated property, meaning you’re pretty soon going to lose sight of the underlying assets. You’re dealing in pieces of paper. Now, these people are selling shares in evaporated evaporation to millions of people. And this is now evaporation cubed. And nobody knows what they’re investing in. It’s E to the third power equals … insanity?”

“God! I’m a quoted economist!”