steve schwarzman says it is a wake-up call if not a warning. at the very least they are much easier to justify today than they were back in 1998 and 1999. >> you wanted to be the banker facilitating those deals. youou are steve schwarzman are looking at valuations from a completely different lens. >> perhaps. >> eric and i can argue in new york or in california. >> let's move on. our ownt to bring in colleague from the west coast. jon erlichman joins us now. there is so much talk in the media. so many media giants and cable in the news. >> i love to see you guys fighting in person. >> i don't necessarily love the valuation but i am a whatsapp enthusiast. >> here's the thing. speaking of facebook, there are some companies in this neck of the woods that facebook has shown interest in. -- theyode interest showed interest in snapchat and they did not get that one. but they did get oculus, this reality. virtual a lot of people are talking about the tech scene and what the bigger media companies are doing. what is getting the most attention is disney

erik schatzker and stephanie ruhle are there and spoke with the blackstone ceo steve schwarzman on wheree sees opportunity. >> we been having a great time buying things. the m&a business has been really depressed for years, way below historic levels. what is happening is some confidence is coming back and there are a lot of reasons why there might be some confidence. we are finding that our companies themselves are increasing their earnings really in excess of the s&p 500 pretty comfortably. our portfolio companies. what happens as businesses do better is people are more confident in their ability to buy or sell. it does not surprise me at all with over $2 trillion of cash in the system, stock prices that are higher than they have been, as a buyer, you have more currency and if you're this this is starting to do well, then you should feel comfortable about buying something. if there is nothing that anybody wants to sell you, it's hard. >> it seems like there are more of these secondary buyouts from other private equity firms. can you make as much dough with those transactions? >> i know

blackstoner from the ceo steve schwarzman as well as the starwood capital ceo barrysternlicht next. ♪oney," and onch bloomberg television, streaming on your phone, your tablet, and bloomberg.com and now available on apple tv and amazon fire. on bloomberg television, streaming on your phone, your tablet, and bloomberg.com and now available on apple tv and amazon fire. i am adam johnson. some of the sharpest minds in business are gathering this week in los angeles for the milken institute global conference. erik schatzker and stephanie ruhle are there and spoke with the blackstone ceo steve schwarzman on where he sees opportunity. >> we been having a great time eyeing things. m&a business has been really depressed for years, way below historic levels. what is happening is some confidence is coming back and there are a lot of reasons why there might be some confidence. we are finding that our companies themselves are reallying their earnings in excess of the s&p 500 pretty comfortably. our portfolio companies. what happens as businesses do better is people are more confident in their abi

he makes a return appearance with us and i am talking about steve schwarzman. good morning to you. >> good morning, how are you? >> we are great, we are in l.a.. now,om where we sit right los angeles, it's sunny outside and it's a beautiful day and never buddy seems to be in good spirits, it's hard to see anything going wrong in the world but there are definitely things going wrong in the world. how worried are you about russia? >> russia is a complicated thing. it's a complicated situation and it's an area where we don't seem to have much in the way of leverage and control. i don't know that the russians were sitting around waiting to take crimea. thewhen the root -- revolution happened, it was an opportunity for them and it's a natural sphere of influence for them. and they took it. there was nothing the west could do. the biggest structural problem in terms of dealing with this type of crisis is that the russians provide about 1/3 of the gas into europe. if that gas were reduced or turned off, it would have a very material impact. as you think about how to m

he makes a return appearance with us and i am talking about steve schwarzman.ood morning, how are you? >> we are great, we are in l.a.. now,om where we sit right los angeles, it's sunny outside and it's a beautiful day and never buddy seems to be in good

. >> steve schwarzman, ruth porat, and nouriel roubini. >> for now, we are on the markets. >> u.s. stocks are ending on a down note. declining intimately with the margin markets. they cut russia's credit rating. joining now to consider the options angle is scott bauer. he is a senior market strategist who joins us from the cboe. there is a move to safety. we see this in stocks and bonds and commodities. before the weekend, with ukrainian tensions ratcheting up, to what extent do you see that and options as well? >> you mentioned to the emerging markets. are emergingtf markets. that is a huge marketplace for options traders. we have seen, what is really interesting is the opening position of 40.5 strike, which expires today. huge fires today. a lot of unrest and uncertainty. that is the cause for buyers coming in. >> are these guys safe havens? >> i am seeing some upside. may be trying to take advantage of some of the weakness. overall volatility, which adds to the premium, is definitely elevated. premium onng more both sides of the markets. >> what about the vix? could we m

because of that and the fact that investors were making so much money alongside the steve schwarzman'se world, they fees andscrutinizing expenses. now the dynamic has changed from the regulatory front because of this mandate -- to what your rule fees can be? if you look at the high-yield market, you cannot make more than x. that is still the market making the decision. it is not an and forced to roll -- enforced rule. >> there are some industry standards. exactly. is are youoint disclosing to your investors exactly what you are targeting? that is where the sec does have authority to save i do not think so. we are in the second phase of this. thepast two years have been "get to know you" phase. he have requested information to understand the business better. now they are inside. they're in the weeds. they are trying to make heads or tails of this. they have found over 50% of the 400 firms they have analyzed were missed charging fees. they were either charging too much money, the investors too much money, were not disclosing it properly. this will become a take story at some point when o

if we were to say eric schmidt of google gets $100 million in steve schwarzman gets $100 million, ised in a different way? beginning, ithe should be treated the same. it's the initial investment in that company, same thing with all the investors in the fund. the argument much better than we do, but as i understand it -- i would disagree. it's not that there's nobody who says the tax treatment on carried interest shouldn't be different between real estate and private equity. there are lots of people who say the tax treatment in the real estate industry or boiling gas industry should be different from venture capital or private equity. they say because the tax provisions around carried interest were developed or at least instituted in order to create a stimulus for risk capital. the argument made is private -- thererried interest are people who say it should be treated differently. >> i was speaking of the generally accepted precept in washington and the industry. i don't think there's any justification for treating mineral extraction and oil and gas differently from private equity. th