>And this isn’t just about the recent glut of capital raised, lagged returns and private equity exit blockages either. Lagged returns is exactly the explanatio

>And this isn’t just about the recent glut of capital raised, lagged returns and private equity exit blockages either. Lagged returns is exactly the explanation here. They publish the table of investments and returns by year. Obviously you don't get your money back the same year you invest it. It's more often a ~7 year investment. But let's round down to 5 years. Look at the chart and compare the investment in PE to the return 5 years later. It's a gain of 80-100% in that time. This is simply how the math works when the investments into a strategy are growing exponentially, with a delayed return. It can continue indefinitely to produce 100% returns for investors, while a snapshot at any given time will make it look like the strategy has lost money overall.