The Guardian, Blackstone Billionaire Is Sorry for Nazi Jab Against Obama's Tax Policies:

The billionaire Blackstone private equity boss Stephen Schwarzman, who is among Wall Street's most visceral proponents of the free market, has been obliged to apologise after comparing Barack Obama's tax policies to the Nazi advance across Europe at the beginning of the second world war.

The tycoon, whose empire stretches from Hilton hotels to the Weather Channel, United Biscuits and the London Eye, has worked himself up into a lather about a proposed tax hike on so-called "carried interest" profits — the gains made when private equity firms buy and sell businesses – from 15% to as much as 35%.

"It's a war," he told a board members of a non-profit organisation, whose members leaked Schwarzman's remarks to Newsweek on condition of anonymity. "It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939."

• Daily Telegraph, Blackstone Chief Schwarzman Likens Obama to Hitler Over Tax Rises
• Fortune, Taxes Are Killing Steve Schwarzman
• New York Times, Schwarzman’s Unfortunate War Analogy
• Newsweek, Blackstone Chief Sorry for Comparing Obama to Hitler