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With the New Year comes a whole host of New Year’s resolutions, New Year’s ideas, New Year’s activities, and other stuff that needs to be done as the old year passes. The reality is that little if anything gets done. Change doesn’t come simply because the clock strikes midnight: It

Those who read this blog with some regularity will not be surprised to read that on Wednesday I was frustrated. I was frustrated because nothing was happening, even though less than twenty-four hours earlier the HEDGEAnswers December call was a great success. But on Wednesday morning nothing was happening. The

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and every other major and most likely minor news organization were littered today with stories of a hedge fund manager pleading guilty to running a Ponzi scheme. Read the story here. Along with this piece of news, we also learned that Congress

Here we are a year after the Madoff mess and the question is: Are we any better off than we were when the whole thing came crashing down? The answer, of course, is no – nothing has changed. The press still is complaining about the “high fees” hedge fund charge,

It seems that no matter how hard people try, it’s impossible to take the bloom off the hedge fund rose. On Monday, two articles caught my eye regarding my beloved industry. The first was a Wall Street Journal blog posting with the headline “Hedge Funds Set For Best Year in

That’s right folks; you’ve read the headline correctly. According to the European Union’s top parliamentarian, hedge funds are not to blame for the worst financial crisis in a generation. Nevertheless, he continued, to save us from the evil that they do, in the future hedge funds need to be regulated

The discussion on this week’s HedgeAnswers call was fast and furious, because people are confused and even a bit dazed about where the hedge fund industry is going, how it is going to survive and what the future holds for managers and investors alike as the potential for regulation is

The Wall Street Journal and other significant and not so significant media outlets are reporting that hedge funds and those who work at them are going to face significant issues and struggles in the weeks and months ahead even with great returns this year. Read the story that appeared on

The recent news of Senator Dodd’s (D-Conn) proposed regulation to make hedge funds with assets of more than $100 million register with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows just how little Congress and the powers-that-be have learned in the wake of the credit crisis, Madoff and anything else of substance

It’s funny how everyone thinks everything is available with the click of mouse or a few strokes on the keyboard. The Internet is the great equalizer of information flow, according to its creator, a former Vice President turned extreme capitalist. If you believe that, well, I have a bridge or

Is it the end of an era? Is it the beginning of a new day? Everybody is talking about how great things are going now the GDP is up and Ford posted a profit. Well, friends, I don’t buy it. Things are still spinning out of control, yet nobody seems

The news this week and last of a “new” insider trading scandal has, according to the popular press, sent shockwaves through the hedge fund industry. And while the jury is still out on whether any of the allegations are true, my question is not about guilt but about when enough

As the market continues it scamper skyward, it seems that everybody wants to get back into the game. The questions about fund managers have been running rampant for the last week or so. Everybody is trying to figure out who is and who isn’t worthy to handle their assets. I

We’ve entered the home stretch of 2009 and with it a new blog site. At the suggestion of a friend, I’ve moved the blog from blogspot to a page I run myself. For the most part, the site is the same, with the same links, and should function as you

The news that some hedge funds are discounting fees in order to attract assets is worrisome to me. Investors who are investing in funds, based on the fees a manager charges, is even more worrisome. I don’t understand this logic. Investment decisions should be based on how a manager manages

Thanks for coming to the new site. I have tried to migrate everything over but may have missed one or two things. Please let me know if you notice anything missing.

Replace the word “Spam” with “Spend” in the great Monty Python anthem and, by George — or should I say by Barack– I think you’ve got it. As the country embraces yet another hundreds-of-billion-dollar spending plan coming out of Washington, I’m sitting here scratching my head, asking why? There seems

This is a solemn weekend for many, as people around the globe take part in ceremonies that commemorate the events of September 11, 2001. The wicked, heinous, cowardly terrorist attacks seem to have left virtually no thinking person in the United States untouched. And while the wounds of those lost

Over the last two months while I’ve been on hiatus from this blog, two things have made me wonder: 1.Why are there no economists or other great minds telling the government that it’s impossible to tax an economy to prosperity? 2.Why doesn’t anybody seem to be willing to take responsibility

You know, it’s so funny when you’re listening to the radio and thinking that you can’t hear anything crazier or anything else that’s going to shock you, but then you hear that the Senior Senator from New York – Democrat Charles Schumer– is pushing the MTA into figuring out how

The search for Alpha starts with Beta. Is that the most ridiculous thing you have read this month? I think so, because even though I wrote it and I’m sure I heard it someplace before, I didn’t know what it meant then and don’t know what it means now. I

Why is it so hard for the Obama administration to find good, honest, decent Americans to work for it? It seems every day we are learning that this person that President wants for his cabinet or that person he wants to work in Treasury has had some problem with something.

It seems like the only solution that any of these so-called leaders — whether they be in Washington or in State Houses across the country — seem to have to our financial situation is higher taxes. Across the nation, the answer is the same: Increase taxes after taxes after taxes

What to do, what to say, what do people want to read, these are the questions I’ve been asking myself over and over again this week. I have spent an enormous amount of time thinking about how to answer these questions. And every time I think about it, the same

So anyway, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I know you’ve been reading the blog with real intensity over the last few weeks. I know this because of the comments that you’ve been sending in via email. The inbox is filled with good stuff. Some of you told me that

The European Union has come to the conclusion that hedge funds are risky according to a recent report by Reuters. Read it here. It turns out that the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has determined that even with new regulation and monitoring, hedge funds and those that manage them,

If the recent confirmation of Tim Geithner and the pending confirmation of Tom Daschle are not examples of inside baseball, I don’t know what is. Besides the fact that President Obama was elected on a platform of change and that he has named practically no one who doesn’t have a

I am really trying hard not to be angry but I can’t help it. It seems that every time I turn on the news, pick up a newspaper or listen to the radio, all I hear about is the government giving out money. Yet for some reason, I never get