How Morgan Stanley lost $5.4B in commercial real estate

After yesterday’s news that a Morgan Stanley private equity fund would lose $5.4 billion of the $8.8 billion it had invested in commercial real estate, the Wall Street Journal’s News Hub took a step back to discuss how the biggest loss in the history of private equity happened. Morgan Stanley bought nearly all of its real estate — largely in some of the riskiest sectors, like hotels — at the height of the market, 2007, reporter Anton Troianovski explained. Other large real estate funds that have done better probably didn’t buy at the peak.