In June The Economist reviewed the book The Iron Triangle on the Carlyle Group:

You need not be a conspiracy theorist, though, to be concerned about what lies behind Carlyle’s success. Can a firm that is so deeply embedded in the iron triangle where industry, government and the military converge be good for democracy? Carlyle arguably takes to a new level the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower feared might �endanger our liberties or democratic process�. What red-blooded capitalist can truly admire a firm built, to a significant degree, on cronyism; surely, this sort of access capitalism is for ghastly places like Russia, China or Africa, not the land of the free market?

It looks like an interesting and instructive read.