Blackstone sees golden chances for investment amid gloom

Bucking the gloom as the global economy heads for recession, chief executive Stephen Schwarzman said that chances were emerging in virtually all asset classes.

"This market is tailor-made for making a fortune in the equity market," he declared. "You can make phenomenal returns for very little investment."

Market panic and recession fears had driven down the prices of even blue-chip stocks, he added. The recession cycle was a "normal" event, but consumers "remain scared out of their minds".

As a result, "there are now golden opportunities to buy assets in almost every asset class", Schwarzman said in a speech at a North American Venture Capital Summit.

He said that politicians had stoked the panic by delaying the passing of US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's first bailout package: "Congress made a complete mess of this. It was like we'd set our house on fire and left to get an ice-cream cone without calling the fire department."

But he said they eventually did the right thing in approving the $700 billion (£436.8 billion) package.

"It was absolutely essential to restoring the health of (the system)," said Schwarzman. Without it, he added, "forget venture capital, forget private equity. It was an end-of-the-world scenario".