a world economic decline will damage the industries that buyout funds bought into, such as retailing and food manufacturing. They won't be able to make new deals, and the old ones are about to turn sour. It isn't a happy combination.
Both types of funds boomed in an era of turbocharged innovation. They were satellites to the investment-banking economy that has now collapsed. We are entering a period during which financial markets will be very restrained. There won't be much space for financial buccaneers, precisely what the hedge and private-equity funds had become.
