If you believe the bears, a new “asset class” is being exposed as just another management and financing technique, and a dubious one at that. But would a freeze in leveraged buy-outs be as bad for stock markets as some fear? The case that equities price in the hope of LBOs across the board is actually pretty weak.

Private Equity Intelligence provides an estimate for “dry powder” – committed equity as yet unspent – for buy-out funds. To this can be added the likely capital raised by private equity outfits on the road now to produce a total of $548bn. It is reasonable to assume that this money is spent on takeovers that are three-quarters debt-financed and occur at a one-third premium to the stock market price.