And now their franchise and star players will reap the financial windfall for their collective patience, persistence, and performance.

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And spirits around Fratton Park will be lifted by a performance of great character and persistence from Avram Grant's team.

BBC: Portsmouth 1-1 Sunderland

In his paper "Private Equity Performance: Returns, Persistence and Capital Flows, " published a few years ago with Antoinette Schoar of MIT, Kaplan suggests that private equity returns are worst when fundraising is strong.

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But even those who know recovery will be slow and painful are perturbed by the persistence of one particular symptom: poor export performance.

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