Goldman Sachs should have prevented KKR's rise in private equity
Tony James · Building Blackstone, Backing Costco, and Working with Munger | Tony James on The a16z Show · May 5, 2026 · at 4:36
Tony James, former President and COO of Blackstone, explains how institutional ambivalence at major investment banks allowed buyout firms to capture the market.
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“There was no reason, really, that a KKR or a Forsman Little that were the big players back then should ever have existed. Your old firm Goldman should have beaten them.”
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