Billionaire plutocrat Steve Schwarzman committed a "gaffe" recently when he said that Obama's effort to raise taxes on private equity firms is "a war...like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939." Steve! We are shocked you'd say (or do!) something stupid.

February 2007: Schwarzman's multimillion-dollar 60th birthday party for himself becomes a defining symbol of the age of financial excess.

March 2008: Schwarzman donates $100 million to the NY Public Library after a magazine article makes him look like a cheap bastard.

October 2008: Schwarzman apologizes for his party being so awesome. "Obviously, I wouldn't have wanted to do that and become, you know, some kind of symbol of sorts of that period of time...Who would ever wish that on themselves? No one." Indeed.

January 2010: Steven Schwarzman's publicly declared New Year's wish for New York was not to help the poor or improve transportation or fund education, but to "create a tax regime for foreign citizens domiciled in the city to have it comparable to the tax treatment of similar people in London. What happens in London is that foreigners, other than Americans, don't pay taxes there in any degree and don't pay taxes in their own home country either, so it's basically a tax-free zone."

And hey, how's that Blackstone stock doing since the big IPO at the height of the boom? Down 70%. That actually makes Steve pretty savvy for cashing out at the right time. (Sorry, investors. Whoops!).