There is a corner of a financial field...

I got all misty eyed yesterday evening, reminiscing about the old days and how quickly things change. But this is not an ode to a lost youth, rather it is the loss at Blackstone, the US private equity group.

It seems like yesterday institutions could hardly print money fast enough to satisfy the urge to lend Blackstone millions for its mega-leveraged deals. But those days are gone. The firm has announced it lost $400 million in the first six months of this year, compared with $1.9 billion profit in the first six months of last year.Where are the headlines now; the Chinese investors and their bottomless wallets?

Where are the trade union demands that something be done to starve the fat cats? Where are the calls to strangle Blackstone with the very tax loopoles through which it seeked to climb? It all sounds a little Rupert Brooke…or Rupert Broke, I suppose, given the times we live in.