When Worlds Collide: The Altered State of Private Equity-A conference summary

The Federal Reserve System's Private Equity Merchant Banking Knowledge Center, formed at the Chicago Fed in 2000 after the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, sponsors an annual conference on new industry developments. This article summarizes the ninth annual conference, held on June 25-26, 2009.

In his introduction, Carl Tannenbaum, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, noted what a difference a year had made. Speakers at last year's conference had noted die beginnings of financial dislocation and a rapid increase in risk aversion. However, no one could have foreseen the subsequent near collapse of the financial system, the breathless succession of dramatic market events, government …