Updated:2024-12-11 02:30 Views:86
Over the past few years, financiers who manage almost $30 trillion in private equity, hedge and venture capital funds have shed their reluctance to exert political influence. Steven Mnuchin brought hedge fund experience to his role as the head of the Treasury during Donald Trump’s first term. More recently, Glenn Youngkin moved from private equity to the governor’s mansion in Virginia. But no presidency has been as thoroughly surrounded and supported by the private fund industry as America’s incoming administration.
Mr. Trump’s family, fund-raisers and financial lieutenants are more likely to be fund managers than any prior presidency, including his first term. Vice President-elect JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr. have been or have become venture capitalists. The president-elect has also tapped Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager, to serve as Treasury secretary.
The investment portfolios and civic institutions these managers govern could hold a clue to what they may likely do: concentrate ever more control over our financial system into substantially less regulated, less transparent capital markets dominated by firms and financiers about whom Americans know very little.
If he becomes secretary, Mr. Bessent will be the second nominee to move from managing hedge funds to leading the Treasury Department. Previously, the role was more of a sinecure for alumni from the famous houses of Wall Street’s ancien régime, investment banks: Henry Paulson, who led the department under President George W. Bush, and Robert Rubin, under President Bill Clinton, were Goldman Sachs veterans. But while investment banks are heavily regulated and advise others, private funds are largely unregulated and invest on their own behalf.
Private money is eclipsing everything, even the old Wall Street titans. The private industry thrived on the Biden administration’s low interest rates and stock market highs. In four years, assets in private funds grew 34 percent, to nearly $28 trillion in 2023 from $20.8 trillion in 2020; the number of private funds grew 59 percent, to 100,940 in 2023 from 63,427 in 2020. By comparison, the total amount of money in public mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and closed-end funds is just under $31 trillion — meaning that the exception has very nearly surpassed the securities rules for funds.
In recent years, boards of trustees running America’s most prominent universities, museums and artistic centers have come to be dominated by fund managers. Joshua Bekenstein, the senior trustee of Yale University’s board, was a co-chairman of the private investment firm Bain Capital; Marie-Josée Kravis, chair of the Museum of Modern Art’s board, is married to Henry Kravis, a co-founder of the private equity firm KKR & Co.; and the Kennedy Center’s board is led by David Rubenstein, a co-founder of the private equity firm Carlyle Group.
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