Thanks largely to the efforts of Richard Friedman, the private equity business at Goldman Sachs has become a glowing example of what The Wall Street Journal calls “copycat economics.” For the past 15 years, Friedman has catapulted the Goldman private equity unit to the top of the field, inspiring other big names to try their hand at cashing in on similar ventures. Merrill Lynch, for instance, has a big hand in the recently announced buyout of hospital operator HCA, even though Merrill had no real investment business, says the Journal. And John Mack is attempting to get Morgan Stanley back on track with p.e. Goldman Sachs’ figures speak for themselves. It manages $20 billion in private equity funds and is raising its lucky 13^th fund that some say may exceed the $15 billion p.e. offering raised by The Blackstone Group. Its private equity business represented 8%, or $679 million, of the firm’s pretax earnings. And the work has paid off its executives handsomely, too: Former CEO Henry Paulson., the new secretary of Treasury, made a cool $12.7 million last year in executive partnerships, in part because of the firm’s private equity success. Some have been critical of Goldman’s p.e. biz because of precarious balancing act it must play to make money in its own p.e. business while serving its p.e. clients. “I’m amazed that Goldman has been able to walk this very thin line between investment banking and merchant banking,” Brad Hintz of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., told the Journal. “And the fact that Merrill is imitating Goldman tells you that the Goldman model was right.”