Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive officer of Blackstone Group LP, said the unprecedented asset purchases by the U.S. Federal Reserve are losing their potency with each round and it’s time to scale them back.

Schwarzman, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Betty Liu on “In the Loop,” said he wasn’t surprised that the Fed didn’t reduce the volume of its asset buying this month because the economy wasn’t strong enough yet.

The central bank unexpectedly refrained from tapering its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases at the Sept. 17-18 policy meeting, saying it needs more evidence of lasting improvement in the economy. Jeffrey Gundlach, manager of the top-performing DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund, said the Fed probably won’t scale back quantitative easing until a new chairman takes over at the central bank at the end of January.

Schwarzman said a reduction in the asset buying later in 2013 or early in 2014, and spread over a one-year period, won’t have a significant negative impact on markets and the economy.

Blackstone President Tony James said in an interview that aired yesterday that the “good times” are just starting for private-equity firms because the U.S. economic recovery is still in its early stages, Europe has stabilized and China is rebounding.