The New Tycoons: Inside the Trillion Dollar Private Equity Industry That Owns Everything

Chapter 2

All the Money in the World

Inside Carlyle

David Rubenstein begins most every speech he gives with a survey of the audience, polling to see what type of crowd he’s speaking to. “How many of you are LPs? GPs? Consultants?” Depending on what’s happening in the world, he might ask whether Greece is going to default or whether the Democrats will keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Usually he’ll throw a funny question in, like, “How many of you think my taxes are going up?”—a reference to a long-standing effort in Washington to change how buyout managers’ profits are taxed.

To many in and around the industry, he is the most recognizable private-equity manager, thanks to the sheer volume of his appearances. He is ubiquitous, ...