The front page of the Wall Street Journal today reported that the moguls of private equity have, not surprisingly, had a blowout year. Nine founders of four of the largest PE firms took home more than $2.6 billion in 2013, which is more than two times their take home the prior year.

Leon Black was the big cigar, with a paycheck of almost $546 million. On the other end of the spectrum, George Roberts took home a measly $165 million. I bet his wife is going to be embarrassed at the club.

The big wins this year are primarily the result of cashing out of investments made prior to the great recession that were viewed as “dogs”, but are now are producing huge wins, such as Blackstone's investment in Hilton Hotels that recently held an initial public offering.