1. Connections talk, but money talks even louder. The companies they buy are also trying to sell for top dollar and rarely court just one buyer. 2. CLOs are de

1. Connections talk, but money talks even louder. The companies they buy are also trying to sell for top dollar and rarely court just one buyer. 2. CLOs are definitely problematic, but the current rate of default is vastly overstated. If private credit defaults at the rate people seem to think it does, we'd be looking at a GFC-type situation. I can't say if there's systematic risk in CLOs a la MBS, but any possible risk hasn't materialized yet. The biggest PE firms today rarely default. Blow-ups such as Toys-R-Us are newsworthy for a reason. See my comment below for more information. I'm not in PE, but I am very familiar with how the sausage is made.