Meet the Private Equity Tycoon at the Forefront of America’s New Phony Philanthropy

Schwarzman. One of many Rogues...

There used to be a thing we called “philanthropy.” Even though the concept of corporate-funded charity has raised thorny ethical questions since its Gilded Age birth (asking, for example, why companies give money away while workers struggle), the idea historically at least had some coherence. Industrial titans like J.D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie took profits from their firms, however troubled their origins, and generally channelled them toward the disadvantaged and afflicted, funding public libraries, museums and disease research among other socially useful projects. The rich, in other words, idiosyncratically and undemocratically, gave to the poor.

Now comes along a real rogues gallery of charlatans pretending to be like these past charitable donors: The "schwarzmanscholars". Don't choak on your coffee!