Yale / Economics

Private Equity and the Financial Crisis

By Stephen Schwarzman | Financial Markets Lecture 20 of 26

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Lecture Description

In this lecture filmed on April 11, 2008, Stephen Schwarzman, Co-Founder of Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, speaks about his experience in the industry. He discusses his thoughts on global finance, particularly at such an interesting and challenging point in the history of financial institutions. Although the near future might be rough for the United States and economies around the globe, capital does tend to come back and regulators are busy figuring out how best to put safeguards on the system. He also offers career advice and mentions some of the surprises he came across upon entering the world of finance.

Course Description

Financial institutions are a pillar of civilized society, supporting people in their productive ventures and managing the economic risks they take on. The workings of these institutions are important to comprehend if we are to predict their actions today and their evolution in the coming information age. The course strives to offer understanding of the theory of finance and its relation to the history, strengths and imperfections of such institutions as banking, insurance, securities, futures, and other derivatives markets, and the future of these institutions over the next century.

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Lecture Transcript and Reading Assignment

Course Index

  1. Finance and Insurance as Powerful Forces in Our Economy and Society
  2. Review of Probability and Statistics; Intro to Present Value
  3. Technology and Invention in Finance
  4. Portfolio Diversification and Supporting Financial Institutions (CAPM Model)
  5. Insurance: The Archetypal Risk Management Institution
  6. Efficient Markets vs Excess Volatility
  7. Behavioral Finance: The Role of Psychology
  8. Human Foibles, Fraud, Manipulation, and Regulation
  9. Investing for the Long Run
  10. Debt Markets: Term Structure
  11. Stocks
  12. Real Estate Finance and Its Vulnerability to Crisis
  13. Banking: Successes and Failures
  14. The Efficiency of Markets
  15. Guest Lecture by Carl Icahn
  16. The Evolution and Perfection of Monetary Policy
  17. Investment Banking and Secondary Markets
  18. Professional Money Managers and Their Influence
  19. Brokerage, ECNs, etc
  20. Private Equity and the Financial Crisis
  21. Forwards and Futures
  22. Stock Index, Oil and Other Futures Markets
  23. Options Markets
  24. The Democratization of Finance
  25. Learning from and Responding to Financial Crisis, Part I
  26. Learning from and Responding to Financial Crisis, Part II
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