The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 20 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Schwarzman: Blackstone's investing makes about double the stock market
“We've just become more popular because the type of investing we do makes about double the stock market.”
Schwarzman: Hilton buyout made $12B, the largest profit in PE history
“And that deal turned out to be the biggest profit in private equity history. And I just read some articles somebody wrote which makes you wonder who said we were completely irresponsible doing that because journalists can say anything they feel like. But that …”
Schwarzman: Blackstone helps underperformers find jobs rather than direct termination
“You never terminate somebody because it's not fair. In other words, they're there because you asked them to be. And so the mistake is yours, right?”
Schwarzman: Debt risk comes from refinancing maturities during downturns, not interest service
“The first rule is never meet a maturity. So if you're borrowing money, you can almost always pay the interest. In almost every case, you analyze it and you see how bad You know, the company performed in previous recessions, and then you take a discount from th…”
Schwarzman: Blackstone would have been buried holding all EOP assets
“If we had held all of it, we probably would have been buried.”
Schwarzman: '10' executives can play all positions and build enormous businesses
“There are just Some people who have that sixth sense of what's going on in, in their area, they can sense danger, they can see opportunity, they know how to hire people, they inspire loyalty, they tend to be really nice people as a rule, and they can build eno…”
Schwarzman: '9' executives execute reliably but are not franchise-determinative
“A nine is, like, really good person. They can execute anything. They're clever. They're hardworking. They're reliable. You can put them in charge of something where you describe the situation, and they can pretty much bring it home without, you know, coaching,…”
Schwarzman: Blackstone flipped $70B in real estate in one month
“So, so we bought and sold seventy billion dollars of properties in one month. The most anybody ever had sold in a year was like bought and sold 10.”
Schwarzman: Client loyalty belongs mostly to the institution, not individual talent
“When you leave an established place, apparently that changes people's views of you. Not in terms of your capability, but maybe it's not you. Maybe it's just the firm where you're working, but for your own ego-driven reasons, you think it's you working at the f…”
Schwarzman: 90% of Bad Investments Stem from Misjudged Known Risks
“Usually in about 90% of the cases, if something goes wrong with the investment, it's about those risk factors, and we got them wrong. The team didn't get them wrong. We all got it wrong, and so if that's the case, and the outcome is suboptimal, the team doesn'…”
Schwarzman: Management success hinges on sequencing and timing, not identifying solutions
“You knew what the right answer was, but if you went ahead and implemented that, you could blow up a whole part of your business, because other people become destabilized. So I learned that, that figuring out what to do wasn't hard, but how to do it, and what k…”
Schwarzman: Blackstone made 3.2x return on Equity Office Properties deal
“We made 3.2 times profit on, on that ten billion.”
Schwarzman: Blackstone has almost never lost money for any bank
“We never had in our whole first fund ever lost any money for any bank. And, you know, we've almost never, in the firm's history, lost money for any bank.”
Schwarzman: Blackstone raised $950M for Fund I with no investing record
“First fund's aspiration was a billion. We raised eight 50, and then went back a year later, got another hundred for money in the firm. So I looked at it, we sort of, with two people with no investment capability, raised nine hundred and fifty million dollars, …”
Simmer: Diagnosed With Stage Three Cancer Right After Bumble's Blackstone Acquisition
“So in May of I was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. I didn't have a family history. I had no reason to suspect that I would have it, and so it was very blindsiding, and this was shortly after Bumble had been acquired by Blackstone.”
Schwarzman: Blackstone received 17 rejections for every yes on Fund I
“I remember each one of the investors because we were turned down 17 times for every one yes.”
Schwarzman: Top-of-cycle investing demands powerful momentum and historically safe pricing
“You always have to know where you are in the cycle, so if you're near the top, this thing's gotta really, it's got a lot to prove to deploy that money. It's gotta have a, just a rip-roaring, wonderful set of momentum thesis, so it'll power through a downturn, …”
Schwarzman: Fear of financial ruin prevents emotional presence with family
“That it's hard to be emotionally present when you're worried about completely wiping out financially.”
Schwarzman: Financial stocks fell 85% in 2008 crisis while Blackstone fell 90%
“The average stock of a financial company, bank, money manager, didn't matter, during the financial crisis went down 85%.
So if you've ever been involved with something that went down 85%,
You would not be a particularly happy Kemper.
Blackstone's always been a…”
Schwarzman: Blackstone launched with $400,000 and a $50,000 fee from Squibb
“I remember when we got our first assignment, that was from Squibb, which was a pharmaceutical company for 50,000 dollars, which was less than the smallest legal bill I had ever gotten on a transaction. But 50,000 dollars, we started with 400,000 total capital.…”