The consensus of a panel of four private-equity partners at the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors (AM&AA) in Chicago, July 19, was that private equity funds are awash in capital to invest, but market value multiples are down from a year ago, and lenders have reduced tolerable debt-to-equity ratios for new loans. Thus, in spite of lower interest rates, the overall cost of capital is up from a year ago.