http://moneymorning.com/2008/02/27/despite-its-billion-dollar-loss-in-blackstone-deal-china-swf-cic-sees-the-bigger-picture/ Global Investment News Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:37:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://moneymorning.com/2008/02/27/despite-its-billion-dollar-loss-in-blackstone-deal-china-swf-cic-sees-the-bigger-picture/comment-page-1/#comment-500 Will Ben “The Mad Hatter” Bernanke Send the U.S. Economy Down the Rabbit Hole? | •••Special Bulletin from The Money Map Report: The “Super Crash” That May Soon Devastate Millions Of Americans… Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:10:10 +0000 http://www.moneymorning.com/2008/02/27/despite-its-billion-dollar-loss-in-blackstone-deal-china-swf-cic-sees-the-bigger-picture/#comment-500 [...] In the early stages of the biggest credit crunch in U.S. history, buying shares in Visa, a company that derives its revenue based on transaction fees from credit-card purchases, qualifies as a particularly ill-timed investment.  Perhaps buyers of these shares didn’t get the memo, but the days of Americans using credit cards to buy products they cannot afford are about to come to an end.  For all its flaws, Wall Street does possess an extraordinary ability to apply lipstick on any pig.  For the formerly private owners of Visa, this is perhaps one of the best exit strategies ever engineered, on par with last year’s Hail Mary pass tossed up by top hedge-fund player The Blackstone Group LP (BX) last year [shares of Blackstone are now trading for half their IPO price]. [...] [...] In the early stages of the biggest credit crunch in U.S. history, buying shares in Visa, a company that derives its revenue based on transaction fees from credit-card purchases, qualifies as a particularly ill-timed investment.  Perhaps buyers of these shares didn't get the memo, but the days of Americans using credit cards to buy products they cannot afford are about to come to an end.  For all its flaws, Wall Street does possess an extraordinary ability to apply lipstick on any pig.  For the formerly private owners of Visa, this is perhaps one of the best exit strategies ever engineered, on par with last year's Hail Mary pass tossed up by top hedge-fund player The Blackstone Group LP (BX) last year [shares of Blackstone are now trading for half their IPO price]. [...]

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