Carlyle: Rose-tinted in tulip-land

Picking CCC as your ticker symbol when you’re listing a fund that invests in debt seems a little like tempting fate. But that’s what private equity shop Carlyle Group did when it floated Carlyle Capital Corporation in Amsterdam. The fund invests in AAA-rated bonds backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the US mortgage giants that carry an implicit government guarantee. But with 32 times leverage at the end of 2007, there wasn’t much cushion against the margin calls that are now coming in. Many h...