Bessent Usurps PEU Firm e-VAC Magnetics

Two days after Trump II threatened to fire Treasury Chief Scott Bessent for not bullying Fed Chair Jay Powell sufficiently, Bessent waved a small magnet on television.  He bragged about the Trump economy and the number of potential jobs at a Sumter, South Carolina rare earth magnet factory.

Trump II threatened Bessent, a gay man, at the U.S. Saudi Investment Conference where he offered his usual drivel that a year ago "our country was dead", "the economy was dead."  

What happened a year ago under the Biden administration?  That Sumter, South Carolina magnet plant received the "2024 Energy Transition Deal of the Year" from IJ Global.

Ara Partners, a global private equity firm dedicated to decarbonizing the industrial economy, announced that e-VAC Magnetics, LLC (“eVAC”) has been awarded IJ Global’s 2024 Energy Transition Deal of the Year (North America). The award recognizes eVac’s $335 million non-recourse financing for their first-of-its-kind U.S. permanent magnet manufacturing facility in Sumter County, South Carolina.

Investopedia states:

Non-recourse finance involves a loan where repayment comes only from the project's earnings. Such loans are generally secured by collateral. 

Non-recourse loans are commonly used to finance commercial real estate and projects with long lead times. Unlike conventional loans, the repayment depends on the success of the project being funded.

Scott Bessent bragged about a Biden era sweetheart deal for a PEU affiliate that include giant federal grants and tax credits.

This landmark transaction, undertaken by Ara Partners and its portfolio company Vacuumschmelze GmbH & Co. KG (“VAC”), strengthens the domestic supply chain for electric vehicles, aerospace and defense, renewable energy, and other critical industries. 

The project has also received strong federal and state support, including a Defense Production Act Title III grant from the Department of Defense and a $111.9 million Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/Cryptobro brethren.  Increasingly, more are one as in the case of Scott Bessent (Key Square Group).

Trump II will usurp anything and anyone.  Bessent is a quick study given he snatched a 2024 PEU sweetheart deal of the year and dragged it into Trump's Rule of 47.  

Threatening to fire the gay guy in front a group of homophobic Saudis?  That's piece of cake for Trump.  

At some point Bessent will tire of eating Trump's verbal defecation and get his soul back.  Until then, I trust our Treasury Secretary will continue to enjoy Trump's special buffet of discounts, derision, backhanded compliments, abuse, insults, snubs, barbs, slurs and punchlines.

PEU Pallet Rollup Implodes

Bloomberg reported creditors are taking over yet another company.  Five years ago private equity underwriters (PEU) bought 48Forty, a maker of shipping pallets.  Audax Private Equity was first in 2020 and Summit Partners entered in 2022.

48Forty bought out other pallet makers, at least twelve in a series of rollups.

Audax monetized their 48Forty stake in 2024.  

Audax just bankrupted Renovo, a rollup of regional home renovation companies.  Another affiliate implosion would have hurt.

Does this portend anything for other PEU rollups, HVAC companies, veterinarian offices, dental practices, hospices....?

Private equity birthed private credit as a means to leverage their greed and leverage.  It looks like they may begin eating each other, once again.

The backdoor takeover returns, where equity holders hand the keys over to debt holders.  They don't show up with a tow truck anymore, just lawyers with paperwork.  

That's two more areas for rollups, law firms and travel breakdown response.  I think you might be getting the picture.  

Note:  An HVAC company helped me yesterday.  At the end of the call the service tech said they'd just instituted a 2.5% charge for the use of a credit/debit card.  He did not seem excited to be sharing this information.  I told him I would call his office and find out how I can pay and avoid the fee.  

I called and learned that I could physically bring a check into their office.  They could not take my checking account number and process a payment.  They did not offer Zelle, Venmo, PayPal or CashApp.  I could not use Bitcoin, which is good as I have none.  

I told them let's make this even more old school.  You mail me the bill and I mail you a check.  When the PEU boys want to charge a fee, they charge a fee.  Avoiding their millage is extremely difficult, irritating and time consuming.

Black-Tie Guest List Chock Full of TechGods, CryptoBros & PEUs

Information about who was invited to the White House black-tie dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dribbled out slowly and haphazardly.  Business Insider got the guest list but revealed only about a dozen executives.  Later, a more complete list got posted on X.  It did not show the affiliations of Trump II's guests, so I took the liberty of doing so:

One can see the usual clumping of TechGods, Cryptobros and private equity underwriters (PEU).  The once appalled Western business community has made peace with the future Saudi king.  

It happened the way Trump usually makes peace.  He picks a side and then steamrolls the opposition into submission.  Historically, this has generally been a framework for making future war.  

The public can see the same shunning of victims that left the Jeffrey Epstein victims on the outside for decades.  Will the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi ever get her day, when "Just Us" insiders shifts to actual justice for that heinous murder?  

Even the menu had violent overtones: "Squash" soup, "Rack" of lamb....

Shamed & Shameless Insiders: PEU Window

The banquet of consequences may actually be arriving for powerful political insiders who captained government functions for their personal power, prestige, protection and profit over the last several decades.  

Insider Larry Summers declared his "deep shame" after email communications with Jeffrey Epstein were made public.  Summers has a long history of getting access, key government appointments, plum jobs with universities, hedge funds and private equity underwriters (PEU).  Those are the very groups Epstein slithered with and around.  This group provided him funding, connections and protection.

The public has a split screen given major events underway today, the looming House vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files and Trump's high ceremonial welcome for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Three Representatives, two Red and one Blue, gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capital with Jeffrey Epstein survivors and family representatives.

How did we allow this to happen?  Larry Summers told us years ago with his coaching on how to become an insider, how to rub shoulders with powerful people such that one day, you too could become one of them.  Stay silent, go along, accept insider rewards,  recognize the rules really don't apply, turn away from anything untoward....but never ever say anything ill about fellow insiders, even to the authorities (which insiders control as the ultimate fail safe).

The other side of this split screen is Trump II's ceremonial excess for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man who U.S. intelligence authorities believe ordered the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

Trump bull-horned the very message of Epstein survivors, "powerful people are untouchable."  Survivors are trying hard to get that changed but they are yet to win.  Jamal Khashoggi's fiancée is yet to receive justice.   She stands alone in her pursuit.  The Crown Prince has the most powerful man in the world at his beckon call.

Ghislaine Maxwell has proven her insider worth and value to Trump II and is rewarded with a cushy prison environment and special privileges.  Seven years from now will she receive a ceremonial welcome at Mar-a-Lago?

The White House has been called the People's House.  

Today it honors the man who ordered the murder of a U.S. journalist in the most evil and heinous way.  It used his Saudi nationality and love for his fiancée to lure Khashoggi into a trap.

The public has the opportunity to see the gross excesses of wealth and privilege that funded Epstein's criminal enterprise.  PEU profits garnered Epstein over $170 million from Apollo founder Leon Black.  Every White House from Bill Clinton to today catered to the PEU class.  Most cabinets, Red and Blue, were chock full of PEUs.

Those excesses exist today, albeit at grossly higher amounts.  PEU legends have been joined by TechGods and Cryptobros in mining Uncle Sam's wallet and steering government policy in a billionaire friendly direction.  How many of these insiders have a predilection for underaged girls?  Who is their supplier?  These are important questions for girls of today.  

One way to protect them is have Epstein's abusers named, shamed and detained.  Is the United States up to it?  

We damned well better be....

Update:  Trump castigated a Bloomberg journalist with a "Quiet Piggy" over an Epstein question on Air Force One.  He followed that with attacking an ABC News reporter in the Oval Office after a question regarding the brutal Saudi execution of Jamal Khashoggi.

"You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen."

Trump saved the Crown Prince's backside yet again.  Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward chronicled the first save.

Semafor indicated the Crown Prince is receiving Epstein level protection pre-November 18, 2025:

House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle plan to attend a reception with him on Wednesday, when Trump and the crown prince will also attend an investment conference. 

And even most Democrats focused more on potential conflicts of interest than on the crown prince’s human rights track record, which provoked bipartisan worries a few years ago.

Memories are short.

And their manhood (as in Johnson - the Speaker) is even shorter.  Politicians Red & Blue...

Jesse wrote:

There are levels of lawlessness being tolerated because it benefits a rich and powerful few, the public and the health of the economy be damned. 

And this is why the Congress and White House continue to twist themselves into knots to cover up and hide the sexual, political, and financial corruption of the Epstein scandal.

And how, over time, we have come to tolerate war crimes including genocide, and extra-judicial murder. We are truly exceptional.

Both the House and the Senate passed the bill requiring the release of the Epstein files.  It now heads to Trump II's desk. 

Update 11-19-25:  Epstein "wingman" Larry Summers resigned from the OpenAI board of directors.

Crown Prince Dinner Guest List: MISSING

"The most open and transparent administration in the history of our country" is yet to reveal who has been invited to the Black-Tie dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tomorrow evening at the White House.

Will the public ever be informed of the PEU Legends, TechGods/CryptoBros, Wall Street Titans, corporate chiefs and subservient politicians of both political stripes that get to dine with the future Saudi King?  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/CryptoBro brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  

And their princely sons shall be far richer than their kingly fathers.  Everybody else, not so much...

Update 11-19-25:  Business Insider got the guest list for the dinner.  They highlighted a number of TechGods, CryptoBros and Red Team oriented billionaires.  

The guest list, shared by the White House, included members of the Saudi government and royal family, as well as almost 50 US business executives. Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo also attended.

Notable guest included Elon Musk (X, xAI, SpaceX, Telsa, Boring, Neuralink), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Tim Cook (Apple), Marc Benioff (Salsforce), Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), David Sacks (VC & Trump AI Czar), Bill Ackman (Pershing Square), Vlad Tenev (Robinhood), David Ellison (Paramount/Skydance), Lisa Su (AMD), Greg Brockman (OpenAI).  That's 11 out of nearly 50.  Not very comprehensive reporting.

The guest list remains unavailable on the White House website.  Pictures indicate a blurry figure might be Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman.  (That has been confirmed, see below)

X has a guest list:  

Add Jeremy Allaire (Circle), Cristiano Amon (Qualcomm), Brendan Bechtel (Bechtel), Marc Beckman (DMA United), Albert Bourla (Pfizer), Stefan Brodie (Bro-Tech), Charles Cascarilla (Paxos), Derek Chang (Liberty Media), Larry Culp (GE), Michael Dell (MSD Capital/Revolution), William Clay Ford Jr. (Ford), Mary Barra (GM), Jane Fraser (Citi), Charles Hallab (Barrington Global founder), Josh Harris (Apollo co-founder), Alex Karp (Palantir), Vimal Kapur (Honeywell), Arvind Krishna (IBM), Kris Marszalek (Crypto.com), Dave McCormick (Senator & former CEO Bridgewater Associates), Bill McDermott (ServiceNow), Sanjay Mehrotra (Micron Technology), Amin Nasser (Saudi Aramco), Phebe Novakovic (General Dynamics), Scott O'Neil (LIV Golf), Meredith O'Rourke (Trump Fundraiser including Ballroom), Kelly Ortberg (Boeing), Ross Perot Jr. (The Perot Group), Chuck Robbins (Cisco Systems), John F.W. Rogers (Goldman Sachs), Charles Schwab (Schwab), Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone),  Jeffrey Sprecher (Intercontinental Exchange), Scott Strazik (GE Vernova), James Taiclet (Lockheed Martin), Jim Umpleby (Caterpillar), Kathy Warden (Northrop Grumman), Mike Wirth (Chevron), Chris Wright (Energy Secretary, former CEO Liberty Energy), Steve Wynn (Wynn Resorts), Eric Yaun (Zoom) and Lee Zeldin (EPA).

The bad news is the Acting Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics Jamieson Greer and his wife were at the Black Tie affair lauding a serial violator of human rights and destroyer of U.S. ethics standards.  Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has at least $2 billion in Saudi PIF funds in his PEU Affinity Partners.  The Trump boys have deals in Saudi Arabia and all around the Middle East.

I've heard Trump say the $1 trillion figure before regarding MBS.  That may have been on November 5th in Miami or at the end of his May 2025 deal making visit.    

Trump-Crown Prince to Headline Investment Forum

For the fourth time in 2025 Trump II will spend quality time working on behalf of the Saudi monarchy. 

From Riyadh to Washington, the partnership that powers progress. Where innovation meets ambition, and every handshake tells a story of shared prosperity.

Trump II is throwing a Black-Tie dinner for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tomorrow night.  Invitees include those doing the handshaking at U.S.-Saudi investment events, legendary private equity underwriters (PEU), TechGods/CryptoBros, Wall Street titans, corporate chiefs and politicians.  They've all made big bank while regular folk garner a smaller and smaller portion of the economic pie.  

On the agenda for Wednesday morning:

DIGITAL BLUEPRINT FOR TOMORROW’S AI WORLD

Rest assured, you are in the blueprint and they have big plans.  

If this does not sit right or you aren't feeling the shared prosperity, you may wish to have your voice heard.  Do so at your own risk as neither Trump or the Crown Prince are interested in feedback, only kowtowing and excessive compliments regarding their manhood, looks and accoutrements of power/wealth.

Both men will eventually exit the political scene.  They arrived by beating and both will leave as beaten men.  They will go down throwing haymakers.

Credit Investors Should Watch Blue Owl

In 2017 Blue Owl Capital launched its first credit fund for retail investors, Blue Owl Capital Corporation II.  It intends to merge this fund with Blue Owl Capital Corporation (OBDC), a larger publicly-traded business development company (BDC) focused on private credit.

FT noted that some Fund II investors could lose in the share exchange.

If the mooted deal were to be approved by shareholders and completed at current prices, Blue Owl Capital Corporation II shareholders would see the value of their investments fall by about 20 per cent.

Blue Owl's merger presentation showed a 98% overlap between Fund II and OBDC.  

How does that turn into a 20% loss of share value?  Essentially, the investing public does not believe in Fund II's marks, given the number of recent private credit implosions.  

Blue Owl's CFO talked to FT about the merger.  He conceded Fund II investors could take a haircut under the deal structure.  The CFO called other options, like a public offering or a wind down, unappealing.  I don't believe making your long term investors angry is a winning strategy either.

FT shared the reality that Fund II investors may never get to tender their shares for early redemption, a right they had prior to the merger announcement and had been increasingly utilizing.

Blue Owl executives don't want to let their Fund II investors go at the price they have valued the assets (redemption cancellation).  It remains to be seen what happens with OBDC's share price between now and the closing date.  

Fund II investors should expect a hard sell, likely very different than the hard sell that got them into OBDC II.  

Retirees weighing what to do with your 401(k), please don't put it into private equity, private credit or anything crypto, straight up currency or a company with a digital treasury strategy.  Also, avoid AI at all costs, investment or use.  Blue Owl just did a big financing for Meta's AI.  

Eight years after launching investment grade private credit for retail investors in OBDC II, Blue Owl has set up a possible 20% haircut.  Eight years from now what might the Blue Owl-Meta joint venture debt ($27 billion) look like?  

Update 11-19-25:  Blue Owl called off the proposed combination.