End Of Times For Private Equity? Telephone Pole Fliers Advertise Training

You Know It's a Private-Equity Bubble When...

...You find the flier, posted to the left, affixed to a telephone pole on Houston Street in Manhattan.

We've held on to the flier since February, knowing that one day it would be a memento from a special time. Back then, $20 billion private-equity deals were cropping up nearly every other week. Every company, it seemed, was a target. And hopes of getting rich - as clear as a phone-pole flier - were catching the eye of every M.B.A. and Alex P. Keaton disciple.

You know the score now. Banks have pulled back their financing and are preparing for a tumultuous three months, in which they will have to fund roughly $225 billion in buyout deals. What will become of the flier-floating Private Equity Finance Institute, run out of a midtown Manhattan office by 26-year-old Jonathan Marks?

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