Sisyphus and Private Equity: Pushing the Same Rock, Over and Over

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Like the cursed king Sisyphus, condemned to push a boulder uphill only to watch it roll back down, the fight against private equity schemes feels endless. Week after week, slick firms push risky investments into retirement accounts—masking credit troubles, hiding covenants, and leveraging borrowed money to keep the illusion alive. Despite decades of warnings, too many ignore the dangers until it’s too late. This episode lays bare how private equity’s tricks mirror Sisyphus’ curse—and why investors risk getting crushed under the same rock again and again.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it will have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Sisyphus and private equity. Yeah, I've talked about my Sissiphian
plight here before on the program. And if you're not
familiar with Sisyphis, he was the former king of Corinth
and ancient Greece, and he was a little trickster. And yeah,
Hades came from him, meaning he died and did he

(00:39):
actually tricked Hades, convinced Hades to actually put a pair
of handcuffs on himself, put him on Hades, locked Hades
in the closet and didn't go to the underworld. Pretty
nifty trick. But again, Hades can't do his job. Nobody
dies and people getting chopped up on the battlefield, all

(01:01):
sorts of problems are showing up that night for dinner,
for crying out loud. Eventually Hades gets out, Okay, that's it, Buttery,
you're in trouble. You're going to the underworld again. Tricks
Hades again, and Had's wife comes back up, and then
you know, Hades just had it and he condemned Sissyphis
for all of eternity to push a rock to the

(01:23):
top of a hill only to have it roll back
down on him. I describe my plight at Markowski Investments
in the Watchdog on Wall Street Show as a a
Sisiphian battle. I don't feel like I win much. It
is what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I do the best I can, and the reality of
the situation is if I save a few weekend week
out from doing dumb things with their money, keeping people
from getting ripped off and scammed, well I guess that's
what it's going to be. We have covered and warned
people about every financial calamity and fraud over the past

(02:04):
three decades. Three decades, and I wish I knew what
my batting average actually was. But like I said, it's Sisaphian.
More often than not, people don't listen. They don't listen,
and it's unfortunate. Again, maybe my approach is wrong.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Who knows.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I try as best I possibly can. You know, anyway,
get rich quick connors the world's second oldest profession I
am battling against that. We even the reason why I
bring up private equity again, and I'm going to continue
to beat this drum. Is I'm trying to help people.
I'm trying. I am watching watching the industry in of

(02:46):
itself pull out all the stops to get people to
put all of these private equity investments, many of which
most of which are horrid into retirement accounts for one
K accounts, and it's going to be a disaster. Story
after story I'm seeing now and again these things. They

(03:08):
kept these things on the down low, they're now getting out.
Latest story here Bloomberg private equity leans on weaker credit safeguards.
What does that mean? Problems with credit again, credit deterioration.
You need to put that information out there requires basically

(03:32):
financial covenants. So again you know this is they're trying
to work around all of that, basically masking the true
health of the offerings that they have out there. There's
another issue as well. A lot of the general partners

(03:52):
private equity professionals out there, they borrowed money because they're
invested as well. People are like, oh, we got skin
in the too, you do, but you know you've got
skin in the game. Why are you guys in so
much trouble? That your loans are coming do for the
money that you borrowed to put into this fund, and

(04:13):
you don't don't have any idea where you're going to
get it from. You're not getting paid enough, the performance
is not there, your bonuses are not there. I want
to remind everybody that was one of the big businesses
that First Republic Bank was involved with making loans to
private equity guys. Again, I am going to continue. I'm

(04:37):
going to continue to warn you. You can choose to listen,
you can choose to ignore at your own peril. Watchdog
on Wall Street dot Com