After Jim Cramer rolled over on the subject of private equity Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein told CNBC;s national audience of private equity's difficulty in getting their message out:
"I wish we were better at getting our message across, so maybe we should figure out how to do that better. But in the end private equity (underwriting) (PEU) is a great industry for the United States."Yes, they employ many retired politicians and public servants, but how does a guy with regular public access via CNBC, Bloomberg, WaPo, WSJ, FT, get his backside handed to him, such that the public has negative perceptions of private equity? I'd venture it's the stark hand dealt to employees within the PEU family. Word of mouth on jobs cut, retirement plans frozen or eliminated, years with no pay increases and the trauma of being flipped beats slick PEU ads and presentations.
Private equity has earned its reputation with each and every management stroke. It's the PEU boys that get the happy ending. Everyone else, not so much.
Update 6-22-14: Forbes did a piece on Cramer vs. Rubenstein.
