Those iniquitous equities

"The crowds had come to see ... four more leaders of the private equity movement being cut, diced and fricasseed," writes Matthew Engel in the FT. "Following their colleagues' disastrous performance before the [Treasury select] committee a week ago, this lot were better prepared. They had whole armfuls of facts about their companies' transparency, kindness and social responsibility ... None of them could [say] how much capital gains tax their companies paid."

The Times is feeling indulgent towards 2007's "masters of the universe". "If private equity earnings are choked by tax, livelihoods in all social and economic groups will suffer."