Blackstone’s leadership finances right-wing, autocratic politicians who derail regulatory policies designed to keep rogue corporations in check.
There is a good chance that homes in your neighbourhood, offices in your city, warehouses based in your community, hotels in which you stay, or products that you purchase come from companies that are a part of Blackstone’s sprawling global portfolio. The world’s largest private equity firm and commercial real-estate owner, and the largest private landlord in India, Spain, and the United States, Blackstone is emblematic of the explosive growth of private equity in the 21st century.
That growth has come at the expense of billions of workers around the globe. Blackstone is well-known by climate justice advocates for its role in the rapid deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and huge investments in fossil fuel projects. In the UK, Blackstone reaped huge profits while saddling one of the country’s largest long-term care providers with insurmountable debt. Blackstone infamously profited from housing market speculation after the 2008 financial crisis and aggressively evicted workers after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Blackstone and its subsidiaries have been penalised for competition, contracting, employment, financial and consumer protection violations to the tune of nearly US$300 million in one country alone. It was also the face of child labour in meatpacking, is known for its exorbitant fees to manage worker pensions, and has so far failed to sign up to a coalition-designed Private Equity Labor Rights Platform. In Brazil, it has been criticised for helping to privatise public infrastructure and corporatise agricultural land.
Blackstone seems to believe that it – not voters – should determine public policy. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on housing has accused Blackstone of, “using its significant resources and political leverage to undermine domestic laws and policies that would in fact improve access to adequate housing.” Led by billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, a prominent backer of far-right political campaigns including Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election bid for the US presidency, Blackstone’s network has spent tens of millions of dollars supporting politicians and political forces who promise to prevent or eliminate regulations that might hold it to account. After far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil, Blackstone ludicrously claimed that the country’s democracy was not at risk, providing cover for Bolsonaro to lay siege to civil society and trade unions. It then sponsored a gala by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce to honour Bolsonaro as “Person of the Year.”
Schwarzman himself extracted US$1.2 billion in pay and dividends for himself in 2022 alone, a perfect example of the egregious inequality that threatens democracy everywhere.
