So... Is Private Equity Collapsing Yet?

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So… is private equity collapsing… yet?
Late last week the industry publicly reported its second largest loss ever,
Private credit markets that financed alot of that debt fueled speculation have seen massive withdrawals over liquidity concerns
A Bain Capital European Loan Tranche Defaulted for the first time since 2008,
Investor payouts have slowed to a multi-decade low (also not seen since the GFC)
People can’t pull their money out fast enough
The few public assets that we DO have information on are down by as much as 30% at the same time the border market is up by the same amount.
And the number of unsold companies acquired by these firms has ballooned to over 32,000.
It clearly doesn’t sound great… but uhhh… at the same time, last year, the industry “supposedly” had its second best year ever… (which kinda makes me look like a bit of an idiot right?).
Private equity firms made almost a trillion dollars in new acquisitions and perhaps more importantly sold over seven hundred billion dollars worth of businesses which was only ever surpassed by 2021 when interest rates were significantly cheaper…
But this does raise the obvious question of… how can both of these reports be true at the same time?
Were the naysayers (myself included) just wrong about this industry or was 2025 something of a going out of business sale?