Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

Your Survival Guy Feels Like Jason Bourne Inside “I-Rock”

By

By Motortion Films @ Shutterstock.com

Your Survival Guy feels like Jason Bourne writing to you about a secret, underground black-ops finance story—like I’m uncovering some hidden truth. A secret. But in reality, the truth isn’t hidden at all—it’s right in front of our eyes. More like in front of our “I.” That’s the beauty with stories full of EGO and hubris—they just can’t keep their success to themselves. So here we go.

You know about my concerns with “You Invest, They Win” and how EGO plays an unfortunate role in “high” finance. We get a front-row seat to all of this in Blackstone founder Stephen A Schwarzman’s book, What It Takes.

For a little background, Blackstone is the original gangster in real estate, hedge, private equity, go anywhere, etc. funds. If you name an area in finance—or that single family for sale down the street—chances are these guys are looking under that rock or already have. And like any memoir, this story is in the eye of the storyteller, Mr. Schwarzman, filled with his favorite pronouns “I” and “me.”

Be Intelligent: Join Dick Young & Get My Friday Email

If you want to learn “What It Takes” to succeed as an investor, look elsewhere. But if you want to read about someone that comes from a good family, is a high school track star and class president that goes to Yale, Harvard Business School, and becomes richer than Croesus, then this book is for you.

Skip to the end of the book, and the Acknowledgments read like a who’s who in politics and finance—the movers and shakers around the globe. He tells us, for example, he’s met the last five presidents of the United States as we learn money and power are non-partisan. Yippee. Hey, woke is not for the broke.

Turning to EGO, did you know that the largest financial services firm in the world, BlackRock—not to be confused with Mr. Schwarzman’s Blackstone—was founded by Blackstone partner Laurence Fink?

Here’s the back story. When Fink was at First Boston, he was the “man” that created mortgage-backed securities. Fink along with Lewis Ranieri over at Salomon, were the godfathers of MBS trading, controlling 90% of the market. Read Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis for a front-row seat, then watch the movie The Big Short to see what could possibly go wrong.

Well, Mr. Fink bet on the direction of interest rates, hedged it incorrectly, which was apparently not his fault because some kid in operations messed up what he wanted the hedge to do. Anyway, First Boston lost $100 million, and Fink was looking for greener pastures. He joined Schwarzman at Blackstone to create a financial services division, and kicking around names “BlackPebble” didn’t sound “big” enough.

In what Schwarzman refers to as a transaction he’d like to have back, he and Fink got into a disagreement about ownership/dilution, and Schwarzman sold Blackstone’s shares in BlackRock worth a couple to three hundred million at the time to PNC, which it sold a few years ago for around ten billion. The agony of defeat.

Action Line: Depending on where you stand on this true story—just think these guys are up and at it every single day because, as Schwarzman notes, he only needs about five hours of sleep—What It Takes is less about Schwarzman’s Blackstone than it is about how much “I-Rock.”

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Instagram profile

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Instagram profile

Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)

Recent Posts from YourSurvivalGuy.com

Your Survival Guy in Paris: Pot of Gold

 Be Intelligent: Join Dick Young & Get My Friday Email Action Line: Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter. P.S. Read all about my latest adventure in Paris. Your Survival Guy in Paris: Go Big, Not Broke: You don’t go to Paris to save money. You do that before […]

Harris’s Record of Radicalism

Kamala Harris has had a sheltered existence as a candidate so far. She didn’t need to compete in a primary, and she hasn’t done many interviews. The American people don’t know much about her without doing some digging. In The American Conservative, Rep. Jim Banks digs in and exposes Kamala Harris’s record of “radicalism.” Banks […]

Inflation Flare Up Frightens Fed

You have probably been watching the Fed’s actions with suspicion as it lowers rates despite continued above “target” inflation numbers. Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have explained that the momentum of disinflation is strong enough to continue to bring prices down even with rate cuts. Despite Powell’s assurances, inflation remains stubbornly high. In the […]

Your Survival Guy in Paris: Go Big, Not Broke

You don’t go to Paris to save money. You do that before you arrive. You save ‘til it hurts and live within your means. Paris is for spending. With a little prior planning, you don’t have to break the bank. You can have your cake and eat it too. Literally. There are plenty of Michelin-star […]

Chicago Already Regrets Electing Progressive Mayor

Radical progressive politicians have seized power in many of America’s Big Blue Blob cities. Instead of protecting the interests of their constituents, these politicians put their personal political agendas first and foremost. Perhaps none have done such a poor job for voters as Chicago’s radical progressive mayor, Brandon Johnson. John O. McGinnis explains in City […]

Swing State Voters Running from Kamala Harris

After briefly taking leads in many of America’s swing states, Kamala Harris is quickly falling behind Donald Trump in the polls. A.G. Gancarski reports in the New York Post: Democrats are counting on three swing states and their 44 electoral votes to deliver the White House to Kamala Harris in 26 days. Yet voters in […]

Your Survival Guy in Paris: 14,000 Steps

Your Survival Guy and Gal walked 14,000 steps for lunch yesterday from Le Bristol Hotel to Breizh Café for oysters, crepes, and cider. It’s not exactly a walk to your corner bistro. There are at least a couple of Breizh Cafés in Paris. This one, our favorite, is in the Marais, a cool neighborhood perfect […]

The Rift Between Biden and Harris Grows Wider

You have probably noticed a number of moments recently when it seemed that perhaps Joe Biden is not entirely happy with Kamala Harris coopting his political campaign and taking his place as the Democrats’ nominee for the presidency. Recently, Biden told reporters in the White House briefing room that he was “back in” the race. […]

David Dorn’s Wife SLAMS Soros and Kamala Harris in Heart Wrenching Op-Ed

UPDATE 10.9.24: Americans voting in November should remember that when Kamala Harris had to choose between supporting the police and supporting criminals, she chose the criminals. Originally posted August 24, 2022. The killer of former police officer David Dorn, who died defending a small business from BLM rioters in 2020, was convicted of his crimes […]

Your Survival Guy in Paris: “Time Stand Still”

One of the more misunderstood components of compound interest is time. Everyone understands the rate of return. It’s all you hear about, from your uncles to your nephews. “What did it return this year?” they ask. Time, on the other hand, is boring except when you do it over a couple of generations. Then it […]

Harris Is Coming After Your IRAs

With her tax plan, Kamala Harris’s administration would take half of the corporate profits in the stocks you own. Jeff Yass and Stephen Moore explain in The Wall Street Journal, writing: Kamala Harris keeps changing her tax plan, but her latest proposal is to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. She would also raise […]

Harris’s Anti-Constitution Pattern

Kamala Harris recently discussed owning a Glock in an interview with 60 Minutes’s Bill Whitaker. Put aside for a moment that Kamala Harris has attempted to ban “high capacity” magazines, which would include, according to anti-gun activists, nearly every model Glock produces. Watch the clip below: What model Glock do you think Kamala Harris owns? […]

The Most Beautiful Trips I Took Were Through…

Growing up, Your Survival Guy’s mom would always talk about prior planning. It would often revolve around a vacation we felt lucky to be taking. “Prior planning,” she would say with a smile, hardly believing it herself, deep down knowing how hard it was to spend the money. When you learn at an early age […]

Hurricane Prep: Can You Answer These Three Questions about Your Own Preparation?

UPDATE 10.7.24: In the wake of the recent devastation from Hurricane Helene which crippled western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, and with Hurricane Milton headed for Florida, it’s time to quickly take stock of your own hurricane preparations. Remember, hurricanes don’t just happen on the coast, and they don’t just happen in the south. Some […]

Voters Don’t Want Harris’s Tax Hikes

You know politics are as divisive as most Americans have ever seen in their lifetimes, but there’s one issue where more than three-quarters of Americans can agree: taxation. The results of a recent poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies show that 76% of Americans don’t want tax increases like those promised by Kamala Harris. Salena […]