A Day in the Life -- The Private Equity Industry -- How does the Private Equity Industry Work? -- The Poor Investment Results -- Private Equity and the Holy Grail -- The High Fees -- The Customers -- The Staffs -- The Enablers -- The Fellow Travelers -- In Closing.

Introduction -- "The Heart of Contemporary Capitalism": The Partners and their Bank -- J.P. Morgan & Co. at home and abroad in the 1920s -- The Young Plan, the Bank for International Settlements and the Wall Street Crash, 1929-30 -- "The End of the World"? The 1931 Crises -- "Witchcraft": J.P....

In this paper, we investigate the damage to real-sector investment spending and corporate financing activities triggered by the failure of three major investment banks during the 2007-09 financial crisis. We find that firms characterized by pre-crisis corporate investment banking relationships...