In the early 2000s, before I became a reporter, I worked for GE Capital, which made loans to companies owned by private equity firms. It wasn't exactly glamorous: I traveled to suburban Milwaukee to buy tires from a vitamin store and oversaw a loan for a Christmas tree farm that the loan committee hated because of its seasonality. When I tried to explain my job at parties, people gave me quizzical looks.
Flash forward to September 2023. Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire CEO of investment giant Blackstone Inc., spoke at a panel in Paris about the appeal of corporate lending – or, as we now call it, personal lending. “If you can make 12%, maybe 13% on a really good day,” he said, “what else do you want to do in life?”
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