“The best nonfiction books about complicated, important subjects make the complexities understandable but also bring the lead characters to life. Whether explaining the origins of the leveraged buyout frenzy, unraveling the Byzantine corporate structure and personality-driven mini-dramas upon which Blackstone was built, narrating the ins and outs and ups and downs of dozens of Blackstone’s celebrated deals, or introducing us to an absentminded Pete Peterson walking around with Post-it notes on his lapels, David Carey and John Morris do that and more. This book is as important as it is fun to read.”

—Steve Brill, founder of Court TV and The American Lawyer ,
author of The Teamsters and After , and co-CEO of Press+

“A great strength of American capital markets is their extraordinary ability to positively innovate. The rise of private equity firms is a powerful example of this phenomenon. David Carey and John Morris tell the tale of Blackstone and the world of private equity with verve and perceptive insight.”

—Steve Forbes

“An easy read with great insight into the world of private equity.”

—James M. Kilts, former chairman and CEO of the Gillette
Company and founding partner of Centerview Partners

“ King of Capital is at the same time informative, insightful, and entertaining. Carey and Morris provide an eye-opening history of buyouts and private equity that explains how and why the private-equity industry has evolved. They provide an unusually balanced (for nonacademics) treatment of the effects of private equity that conveys the essence of the academic research. And, of course, they do all of this while capturing the fascinating escapades and personality of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone.”

—Steven N. Kaplan, Neubauer Family Professor of
Entrepreneurship and Finance, University of Chicago
Booth School of Business

“The story of the private-equity industry over the past two-plus decades has been inexorably linked with the story of Blackstone. This well-written book goes beyond the personalities and the war stories to provide a fascinating look at the evolution of the group and the industry.”

—Josh Lerner, Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking,
Harvard Business School

“ King of Capital aspires to be a serious portrait of Blackstone and the way that Schwarzman so brilliantly built it up, scoring numerous coups along the way and avoiding the mistakes of many competitors. And it does a fine job in what it sets out to do.”

—Henny Sender, Financial Times

“The authors … [take] us from the early days of the Blackstone Group, when the firm was just two guys and a secretary, to the buyout boom, when Mr. Schwarzman’s conspicuous consumption became a symbol of the new Gilded Age. In between, the book dives deeply into the firm’s signature deals —Celanese! Nalco! Distressed cable bonds! —that made Mr. Schwarzman and his partners so rich. It also delivers some fun details about many of the now-famous Wall Street players that did tours of duty at the firm.”

— New York Times DealBook

“Compelling.”

— National Post

“[A] broad history of private equity, with Blackstone as the touchstone.”

—Fortune.com

“Check out King of Capital because it’s got gossip, it’s got brains, and it’s as readable as hell. And it’s got some really good Schwarzman stories too.”

—The Deal

“The authors link Blackstone’s history to the larger story of private equity’s expansion and its relationship to corporate America. They offer a lucid explanation of how the debt markets evolved from junk bonds to securitized loans, changing the types of deals that private-equity firms were able to finance.”

— The Economist