Way too broad a question to answer in a comment response. See:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/finance-investment-banking-jobs-tradeoffs/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/is-finance-a-good-career/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CYes%2C%20the%20overall%20industry%20will,companies%20in%20the%20long%20term.

Thanks for reply
So, what are the highest paying jobs with good work life balance and you can develop a broad skill set? What skills should I develop to start a side business? Thanks in advance

This isn’t a great question for me because I only worked in the industry for a few years, left to start this business, and am now “semi-retired” (i.e., I am still running this site, but more out of boredom than extreme passion or financial need). I think it’s still reasonable to start out in IB/PE, but I think the long-term prospects are worse than they were in 1990, 2000, or 2010. My top recommendation is to pick a job where you work and earn a lot and also develop skills you can use to start a side business.

I think there will be some opportunities in corporate carvouts and asset spinoffs in emerging markets like China and India. Private equity firms are selective in this approach. Banks in India are already in dire stress and they shut down the whole credit especially to already indebted companies and corporate bonds market is still in nascent stage in India with very few companies are raising capital via foreign currency bonds which are long term debt . Other companies access capital which are short term loans. commercial papers and debentures. With banks went into the back seat now, companies right now look forward for outside capital to sustain their business and pE INVESTORS are selective in this approach. We saw some buyouts from private equity players like KKR and Advent and some cases they take a minority stake and partner with businesses on a strategic basis. Moreover, companies in India hardly reliquinsh their control since many are family oriented businesses. Many conglomerates are doing asset spinoffs , raising capital from private equity investors to retire bank debt and middle range companies are in the need of capital in which banks are hard to lend due to their own aversion of risk and legacy loans already weighing their balance sheet. Apart from that, refinancing debt and restructuring companies are cumbersome since India’s Insovency and bankruptcy court is in early stage as well as lack of deep corporate bond market both very smal primary issuers and very very few secondary market ,only mutual funds are buying and selling the papers of some companies. We see there will be lot of Pe investors wanted to invest in businesses ,but not in Debt side but in equity side ,buyouts, carvouts etc. Blackstone and Brookfield are having some great success in REITs space . But the main issue is access to capital is very much low for middle range companies, private equity investors are selective due to restructuring issues and regulatory barriers, so we can able see very few deals in Mezzanine debt or long dated bond financing due to lack of deep bond market. Many companies today are raising money via preferred shares or from rights issue in India, the whole debt side financing is absent when the other part of the world are raising billions of dollars via bond financing especially British petroleum where you shave shared the post. The largest company in India called Reliance was selling equity stake to Pe players and retire their legacy debt ..private debt markets or public debt markets are opportunities but regulatory barriers, proper financial reporting standards and rule of law must be intact which will allow PE investors to allow capital flow freely to companies in need of capital. Again I would say, PE investors are very selective and that’s correct.

Yes, the flow of funds from LPs in the West into Asian markets will probably slow down at some point. There is more growth potential in Asia, but I’m still skeptical that PE really “adds value” in most cases. Oh, and leverage levels in China are already very high, with no sign of a reduction in place, so it’s not clear how that ends. So, I don’t know, maybe the industry is better off in Asia, but I still don’t think the prospects are great over the next 20-30 years.

Thanks.

Yes, I agree that there is more nuance to the income/wealth gap, and that if you include transfer payments, it doesn’t look quite as bad. That said, the carried interest loophole is a huge point that favors the wealthy, and, frankly, it shouldn’t even exist. If anything, taxes should be higher on carried interest.

Regarding regulatory changes and antitrust, there are plenty of industries where private equity effectively has monopoly power or something close to it. Take a look at Matt Stoller’s coverage of this topic to see many examples in industries you’ve probably never even heard of:

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/weird-monopolies-and-roll-ups-horse

“Consumer harm” is a very narrow criterion for antitrust, and I don’t think it’s appropriate. Yes, I understand that this is how the law is CURRENTLY applied, but it hasn’t always been that way, and it may not stay that way indefinitely. Laws and their interpretation change over time.

Look at Amazon: yes, consumers get lower prices, but at what cost? Hundreds of thousands of small businesses have died, counterfeit products flood the market for many items, and the company provides no support.

The point is, you need to look at the entire ecosystem around the company/platform, not just whether or not customers get lower prices. Again, yes, I understand that’s not how the law is applied currently, but that could easily change, given that it has changed before.

Yes, regulation often benefits large companies, but there are ways around that. For example, just include a carve-out saying that rules only apply above revenue level x.

Small companies in fragmented, competitive markets should not be regulated much at all. But when a company amasses as much as power as the FAANG ones, regulations and break-ups are appropriate.

Agreed.

“Fiscal – Tax policy has favored the wealthy, the U.S. started running massive deficits, and income and wealth have increasingly shifted to the top 1%.”

There’s more nuance to this. Many studies have shown that after taxes and transfers the United States has one of the most progressive tax regimes in the world. That said, the preferred long term capital gains rate makes a big difference in specific fields where that applies. So the end result is “wealthy” doctors and lawyers that draw a salary pay a fortune in taxes, while private equity partners with carried interest pay a much lower rate. I don’t see the macro shift being raising taxes on the wealthy per se, but a rethinking of preferred capital gains rates as some on the left have advocated could definitely make private equity less lucrative.

“Regulatory – The government has been “deregulating” and has barely enforced anti-trust law for the past few decades. That favors private equity because it enables industry consolidations and easier exits while hurting normal employees.”

I don’t think this is true. I can think of very few PE portfolio companies that would rise anywhere near the level of a monopoly even when combined with a big strategic player. The US anti trust system has actually not been dormant, just since the 70s it has used a “consumer harm” criterion to assess anti-competitiveness. This is why the FANG companies get away with being as big as they do; they can easily argue that they offer regular people lots and lots of free, innovative services that would disappear if these companies ceased to exist, thus harming consumers. More aggressive anti trust enforcement a la Europe would make life harder for massive strategics, but I am not sure that they would impact PE firms. (As an aside, in some ways increased regulation benefits large companies which can hire armies of lawyers and accountants to navigate the regulatory morass – this disadvantages smaller players). Also to your employee harm comment, that may have been true of KKR’s 1980s slash and burn cost cutting tactics but the industry has moved beyond that so I think this is less of a negative than it’s often portrayed.

Overall really liked the piece.