Where have all the private equity firms gone? The global ranking of top financial sponsors lacks the usual suspects such as Blackstone, KKR and TPG, and includes names that didn’t even make last year’s Top 10 list.

So far this year, JC Flowers ranks as the top financial-sponsor acquiror with $6.8 billion in value for one deal, followed by First Reserve with $4.8 billion in value for five deals and BC Partners with $3.2 billion in value for one deal, according to research firm Dealogic.

That’s a paltry showing compared with last year’s rankings, led by KKR with $119.3 billion for 41 deals, according to Dealogic.

Of course, the U.S. credit crunch, economic slowdown and stock market weakness make last year’s mega-LBOs seems like a distant memory.

So far this year, financial sponsor M&A buyout volume totals only $66.7 billion, down 71 percent from the same period in 2007, Dealogic said. The biggest drop in financial sponsor activity has been seen in the U.S., where the volume declined 86 percent to $20.3 billion from $146.4 billion in the same period last year.

The LBO bubble? It was fun while it lasted.