DealZone

Is it a green shoot or just a less-brown twig? That’s the question posed by the Blackstone Group’s Chief Operating Office Tony James at the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Diversified Financial Services Conference.
    
“These supposedly green shoots the government wants us to believe in — we see them as slowing rates of decline, not signs of growth,” James said.
 
Blackstone views the current economic crisis as worse than a typical recession, but not as severe as the Great Depression. The firm expects a faster rebound than seen after the Great Depression, but it will be more like “grudging regrowth” than a vibrant resurgence, James said.
    
Overall, James said the private equity firm was excited by investment opportunities but the firm would proceed with caution.

(Photo, of James at 2006 Reuters Summit, by Keith Bedford)