Will Henry Kravis and Stephen Schwarzman be voting for Mitt Romney in the
upcoming presidential primaries? Based on a Slate article about the subprime
mess, a reader could conclude "the masters of the universe" may want to
consider pulling the lever for the Republican presidential hopeful this
winter.
At first glance, using Daniel Gross' subprime article may seem like a leap in
logic, but it really isn't. Gross explains that the Bush administration
ignored the subprime mess until it hit Wall Street's top tier institutions. At
that point, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke swung into action at the behest of their former colleagues.
With that in mind, if private equity had friends in such high places, then
perhaps the carried interest taxation debate in Washington would have been
brushed under the carpet long ago. With Romney, a founder of Bain Capital, in the White House, the buck
would stop with a former PE dealmaker, which far outstrips the Treasury
Secretary or Fed chief any day.
No one knows for certain if PE dealmakers will be voting Romney, but it
shouldn't surprise anyone if they do. — Matthew Wurtzel
See story from Slate
See story about taxes from The New York Post
See the Rules of the Road column from The Deal newsweekly
See related story about PE donations to candidates from peHUB
See similar story about venture capitalists from peHUB
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