High finance has hit a low. Investment banking work has all but dried up and the private equity industry bears a lot of the blame. The bad news for those involved is that managers of buyout funds might struggle to get their flywheels spinning again even when the current economic uncertainty starts to clear up.

Private equity has been a huge driver of investment banking revenue over the past 10 years because of its regular cycles of buying, selling and refinancing companies. At Goldman Sachs Group Inc., for example, more than 30% of global investment banking fees came from private equity related work in recent years, compared with less than 20% a decade ago. READ MORE