20. Guest Lecture by Stephen Schwarzman

Financial Markets (ECON 252)

Stephen Schwarzman, Co-Founder of Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, speaks about his experience in the industry. He discusses his thoughts on global finance, particularly at such an interesting and challenging point in the history of financial institutions. Although the near future might be rough for the United States and economies around the globe, capital does tend to come back and regulators are busy figuring out how best to put safeguards on the system. He also offers career advice and mentions some of the surprises he came across upon entering the world of finance.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: Stephen Schwarzman's Profile
03:00 - Chapter 2. In His Own Words: Early Discoveries in the Financial Market
12:36 - Chapter 3. Real Estate Assets Performance with Blackstone
17:16 - Chapter 4. Deconstructing the Subprime Crisis and "Jars of American SARS"
26:53 - Chapter 5. A Recession in the Aftermath: A New Financial World
34:49 - Chapter 6. Questions: Successes and Setbacks
44:54 - Chapter 7. Personal Lessons and Insights from the Financial World
55:44 - Chapter 8. Questions: Dealing with Failure and the Future of Investing and Private Equity

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2008.