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With $2.5 trillion at hand, 10 of the world's most secretive
Business Week calls them:
Like a plague of locusts, they've been descending on Wall Street gobbling up companies, shrinking stock markets and strip-mining talent. Now they're about to devour your retirement...
Dear Friend, They're Wall Street's new power players. And in the past five years, they have risen from near obscurity to become one of the most fearless, powerful and influential forces on Wall Street today. They've been called everything from "Corporate Raiders" to "Pirate Equiteers" ...from "Barbarians at the Gate" to "Locusts." With big egos, insane sums of money and mind-boggling amounts of leverage they have begun to embark on one of the biggest (and most reckless) spending sprees in economic history. Driven by greed and fearlessness, these swaggering dealmakers have begun a feeding frenzy so voracious, that it has many of the market's most brilliant technicians terrified. Former Morgan Stanley strategist and Wall Street insider, Barton Biggs calls it a "financial bubble in the making." Jim Rogers (of Soros's legendary Quantum Fund) warns of a "gigantic shakeout." The International Herald Tribune claims that there's "no question this is going to end badly...It's almost a classic boom-bust cycle." And now even the world's most fierce regulators, the SEC and the UK's Financial Services Authority have begun to sound the alarm. Some even profess that it has the potential to bring the global economy to its knees. Problem is, the public is still completely oblivious to this new systemic threat...
"Gluttons at the Gate"By the end of the year this small clutch of firms (and their ilk) look set to control assets 1/6th the size of the entire U.S. economy. The frightening thing is, most of this power and financial might is concentrated into the hands of just 10 players - players that few people know anything about... And that's the way they like it. For these firms are not regulated by the SEC. They're not funded by thousands of investors from the public markets. In fact, they're not publicly traded companies at all. They're private firms. And they are owned by a handful of some of the richest, most influential and most powerful people on the planet. Past and present parties have included everyone from the Bushes to the Bin Ladens...from Ex-Presidents to past Directors of the CIA...from former Secretary's of Defense to British Prime Ministers...from Heads of the Treasury to White House Budget Advisors. But despite their rising scale and influence, you've probably never heard of these firms' names - even though they probably touch your life every day. For instance, they may own the office at which you or your children work...the hospital where your mother's hip was replaced...the casino where you enjoyed your last bet...the pipelines that carry oil and gas to your home...the car you rented on your last holiday or business trip...the cable that channels entertainment into your home...the stores you buy your groceries, your suits and your linen at. They are the secret owners behind some of America's most iconic brands, including Hertz, Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin-Robbins, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Music, Neiman Marcus, J Crew and Toys "R" Us. They're called Private Equity firms. And they go by names like the Carlyle Group, Blackstone, Texas Pacific, Bain Capital Partners, Apollo and Cerberus. But they don't make their money by creating new enterprises. They don't spin profits by launching new drugs, writing revolutionary software or engineering new technologies that can change the world... Rather, many of the many private equity firms do it by simply buying up Wall Street's most unloved publicly traded companies. They de-list the companies, strip them down, cut their costs and their workforces, load them up with debt, charge them questionable fees and rush them back to public markets at warp speed. To quote industry insiders, they "buy 'em, strip 'em and flip 'em."
They're supposed to add value to the companies they acquire. But lately, driven by greed and the temptation for quick profits, some Private Equity Firms have begun to rape and pillage their takeover targets. They immediately load up the company's balance sheets with so much debt as to almost cripple them. Then they begin to draw hefty dividend payments for themselves. And they don't stop there. They continue to return to the till to extract umpteen other costly and questionable "advisory" fees. The size of these "equity extractions" has now reached billion dollar levels - amounts that in the past were unthinkable. And when questioned by the press about them, they refuse to comment. Nor do they have to answer to any public shareholders. All the deals are done quietly behind closed doors, far away from the scrutiny of public markets. Increasingly these firms are swooping down on companies, sucking out all their value, pocketing billions, and leaving over-leveraged corporate carcasses in their wake. And their takeover targets are getting bigger and bigger. So powerful are these firms now, that no publicly traded company is safe - not even age-old DOW 30 industrial giants. As you'll soon see, a number of them are already on the Private Equity chopping block... "2007's Two Trillion Dollar Culling"In 2006, Private Equity firms stripped about three quarters of a trillion dollars off public markets. This year, they're expected to strip about $2 trillion. Maybe more... Last time they were on Wall Street in such force they, and their insane tactics, were involved in the junk bond crisis of the '80s...the devastation of Black Monday...the S&L debacle...and the recession of the early '90s. Scandal surrounded them. Books were written about them. Movies were made... Now they're back...But this time, they're more powerful, more pervasive than ever before... In fact, this time, they are the engine behind one of the biggest (yet most secretive and dangerous) asset bubbles ever created in stock market history...an asset bubble that has begun to spin completely out of control (up 9-fold in the past 6 years - and expected to more than triple again this year alone - that's if we get that far!). As the International Herald Tribune recently said, when this bubble bursts it may make the junk bond bubble of the '80s look like "the dress rehearsal for the mess to come." I'll tell you about this new market bubble - and the engines behind its maniacal growth - in this special report. I'll also tell you what the inevitable consequences of such speculative growth could mean to your wealth, and to your future. But there are ways to safeguard yourself from this new systemic threat. But you won't find them on Wall Street. In a moment, I'll introduce you to a powerful age-old financial device that can help shield you from this kind of market turmoil. The world's wealthiest families have been using them for generations. Now you can use them too. I'll tell you more about it in a moment. I'll also tell you about a small clutch of alternative investments and asset classes that could leap as much as 1,794%, 1,195% and 797% when this asset bubble blows - just as they did through former financial catastrophes.
Turning Crisis into 1,794% Profit OpportunityMy name is Erika Nolan. I am the Executive Director of an elite group of international researchers called The Sovereign Society. We are advised by an unmatched team of experts and analysts from around the globe...from London to Zurich...Montreal to New York...Hong Kong to Panama City...Copenhagen to the Isle of Man...Singapore to Austria. Collectively, we boast more than 400 years of experience. Our analysts include top geopolitical forecasters, Swiss, Austrian and Danish bankers, New York Times best-selling authors, international money managers, asset protection attorneys, tax specialists, privacy gurus, retirement experts and currency and commodity traders. Together we have helped rack up for our members an almost perfect track record across a variety of alternative investment classes. And we've done it by standing in stark contrast to the Wall Street norm. We don't sit around waiting with bated breath for quarterly earnings reports. We don't bob up and down with the markets. We don't follow fads or buy into market manias or "trendy" investments. Yet, nor are we boring or conservative. We just do things differently. While Wall Street plays the markets one way, we play it another. We don't buy into the "irrational exuberance" that so often grips the Street. We have not been seduced by the new hedge fund mania. Nor has our track record suffered the massive losses that this new type of fund has so often slammed investors with. While we do invest in certain types of hedge funds, they aren't the ones you're likely to hear about on Bloomberg or from your broker. They're not run by 29-year old hotshots. On the contrary, they're run by some of the world's greatest money managers. They boast decades of experience...and our recommended funds have rarely ever experienced a single losing year. In fact, they have thrived even at times when almost everything else has died. I'll tell you about some of them in a moment... Another secret to our success though, is that we shun the "New Culture of Risk" that is so alive on Wall Street today. We bank and invest far away from Wall Street's scandal-plagued casinos (some of which have become the greatest risk-taking machines the global economy has ever seen). The nations we invest in have triple AAA credit ratings. Unlike America, they're not drowning in a sea of debt. Sound financial institutions, traditions and practices are still alive and well in these unrivalled money havens. What's more, you can access powerful financial products there that can open you up to a whole new world of booming investment opportunities...opportunities that aren't plagued by the systemic risks that run through Wall Street. And thanks to the Internet and the telecommunications revolution you can access them just as easily as clicking your mouse. I'll show you how in just a moment... But by not following the Wall Street herd, by doing things differently, for almost a decade now, we have managed to turn great crises into great profits...through the Great Tech Wreck, 9/11, the crash of the once mighty dollar, the accounting sandals of 2002, the bear market of 2002-2003, we have made gains of 1,794%... 1,116%... 797%... 334%...471%...97%... Now you can too. In fact, we believe that opportunities to make even two to three times these amounts might be just round the corner... Here's why... |