This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007 feature. The voting has now closed and readers have chosen the weak dollar and rising oil and gold prices as the money story of the year. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

As we approach the end of 2007, we now have a really tough question to answer. What is the Money Story of 2007? What are the candidates?

The Boom and Bust in Private Equity Buyouts

As we entered 2007, no one could imagine the activity with private equity firms around the world. Private equity firms were supposed to be the new Masters of the Universe, ushering in a new Gilded Age not seen since 1920s. We saw this with the initial public offering of the Blackstone Group, the premiere private equity group. This was followed by a series of public and semi-public offerings by other organizations, such as Apollo Group.

However, the new Roaring '20s was relatively short-lived with the credit crunch. This caused most merger activity, including corporate buyouts, to come to grinding halt. Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) now trades substantially below its high price. Who could guess that private equity would experience a boom and bust all in the same year? However, before you dismiss private equity as an element of the past, remember that most of these firms still have substantial cash available ready to invest when conditions are ripe.

Continue reading Best & Worst of 2007: The money story of the year

Best & Worst of 2007: The money story of the year originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Does this warrant comment from distinguished economists? Bloomberg News thinks so. Jeffrey Garten, a Yale School of Business professor who was the Commerce Department's undersecretary for international trade in the Clinton administration opined: "What we're seeing is a very broad rebalancing of economic and political power in the world. The scales are moving, and they're moving quite fast."

With the dollar down 60% since January 2001, the decline in the dollar is probably going to be hard to reverse. Harvard University professor Kenneth Froot, who has been a consultant to the Fed said, "There is no doubt that the dollar must sink against periphery currencies to reflect their increase in competitiveness and productivity."

If you agree with Garten, Froot, Bundchen, and Jay-Z, it may be time to buy Euros. Or maybe it's too late.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

First Gisele Bundchen, now Jay-Z swaps dollars for Euros originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

'Real' smart: Supermodel Gisele Bundchen knows her currency baskets originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.