Blackstone, KKR Say Buyout Good Times Just Starting

Blackstone Group LP President Tony James said the “good times” are just starting for private-equity firms because the U.S. economic recovery is still in its early stages, Europe has stabilized and China is rebounding.

“I don’t see the good times coming to an end for quite a while, absent some global shock,” James said in an interview airing today with Bloomberg Television’s Erik Schatzker at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. “I’m not sure the stock market doesn’t have a long way to run still, and the economy certainly still has a long way to run.”