It is not often that the UK chief of a mid-market private equity house ups and leaves in the midst of an ignominious deal collapse. So when European Capital co-founder Simon Henderson walked away from the firm he helped create last week, the news was greeted with shock.

Of all the topics covered in this column over the past six years, the overriding issue that demands a definitive answer is “how private should private equity be?”

Private equity is win-win. Now the markets have got tougher, it is going to be “a wonderful time for buying businesses”. That’s what buyout bosses, notably Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, say.

For everyone working in the venture capital industry, the news that 3i is leaving early-stage venture to focus on larger and later-stage deals was greeted with an air of inevitability.

Legal advice is a crucial component of any private equity deal. If Lyceum Capital is right, it could become the deal target.

CFIUS – it sounds like a painful venereal disease. And in fact, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, as it is somewhat more descriptively known, is indeed becoming an irritant for cross-border investors.

If Europe’s buyout investors can be thankful for one thing in today’s troubled markets, it is the “principle of certain funds” that prevails on this side of the Atlantic.

It’s a fairly well documented phenomenon (at least in Real Deals) that when big buyout bosses speak in public, they can often be strangely out of touch. But last summer their faux pas extended to a fundamental misreading of the financial situation.

When an industry is in upheaval, the decision to make redundancies can be vital to the long-term health of those businesses, and the wider economy – even if that is little consolation to the poor souls on the receiving end.

Mega buyouts will become anathema as deals dry up, bankers close for business and institutional investors turn their backs on a once-booming part of the industry. Oh no, that’s already happened. Here are some predictions for 2008.

Three years after cutting the apron strings and heading out into the world alone, Morgan Stanley spin-out Metalmark Capital has taken the unusual step of relinquishing its independence and returning to the investment banking fold.

Like it or loathe it, the buyout industry has turned an historic corner with the publication of Sir David Walker’s Guidelines for Disclosure and Transparency in Private Equity.

When HarbourVest’s debut listed fund of funds launches on Euronext at the end of this year, it will already be almost fully invested.

Two things happened last month to make internet investors sit up. European venture capital’s poster child, internet telephony business Skype, was written down by $1.39bn, two years after eBay acquired it for $2.6bn. Then the much-hyped social network Facebook completed a deal with Microsoft that implied a $15bn valuation for the start-up.

The UK’s venture capitalists have even less reason to be fond of their buyout cousins now. They are losers in a major capital gains taxation reform that sees a tapered rate of just ten per cent replaced by a flat rate of 18 per cent.

So the industry has spoken and the BVCA isn’t going to split into factions – publicly at least. As far as the outside world is concerned, the members continue to speak with one voice, united under a single brand.

You don’t have to check the “big deals” section of Done Deals to know that the large end of the market has ground to a halt.

During the summer, a US mortgage market meltdown sent shock waves across the financial system and brought the mega buyout funding market to its knees.

There was very little in the Treasury Select Committee’s interim report to ruin anybody’s summer holiday.

$33.6bn and guaranteed a healthy $2.6bn payout for co-founders Schwarzman and Peter Peterson.

Nicholas Ferguson probably isn’t the toast of many private equity dinner tables at the moment.

The Blackstone Group is rapidly becoming a contradiction in terms.

Forget Boots. If you are looking for a private equity deal in Europe’s pharmacy sector that has been genuinely daring, innovative and that has been instrumental in the restructuring of an entire industry, look no further than German business.

There is no “big deals” section in our Done Deals coverage this edition (see p23), because in the two-week period prior to going to press, no private equity deals of larger than €250m were agreed in Europe.

Actions speak louder than words, so the saying goes.

Why is Blackstone planning to float? The answer isn’t as clear as it ought to be, and that should worry anyone at the firm not planning to retire post-IPO.

Private equity’s meteoric rise to public enemy number one has been nothing short of astonishing. But whatever the criticisms levelled at the asset class, one thing it – and in particular the indomitable Kohlberg Kravis Roberts – can never be accused of is being a quitter.

I am glad I put my conscience and climate concerns aside last week by flying to Frankfurt for the SuperReturn conference.

Given that this publication has regularly urged the private equity industry to engage further in philanthropic activities, it is a shame that the new charity foundation set up by a consortium of buyout houses, mismanaged its launch so badly. And I'm not talking about picketing at the opening gala dinner.