Oxford University accepted £150m from the CEO of Blackstone for the Schwarzman Humanities Centre = that's where we are. It was opened last year and has an open event soon. Dreadful.

Thanks for the reminder - boosted!

I'm reminded of the 2020 scandal over the Southern Cross care homes - worth repeating as an object lesson in why care should not be in the investment-driven private sector at all.

Blackstone (American private equity) owned both the Southern Cross operating company and NHP - Southern Cross' biggest landlord. Blackstone's Business Model in fact involved selling Southern Cross care homes to NHP and leasing them back on exploitative terms, and indeed tampering with existing leases so that Southern Cross became committed to rent rises every year for 35 years. Having 'created' all that future 'value' in NHP, Blackstone promptly sold it for more than twice what they paid less than 3 years earlier. The care homes then had to raise prices - and keep raising them. Investors - mainly outside the UK - got guaranteed profits; UK people (and moreover public sector care purchasers) got to choose between higher prices (or taxes), or worse care. Or both.