Free Republic

The major media say the chaos on Wall Street was the result of a "trader error, possibly a typo," as the Washington Post put it. Some reports claim the culprit was a "fat finger" on a computer somewhere that pressed the wrong key. But Zubi Diamond, author of the Wizards of Wall Street, says these claims are all lies. "What happened in the market on Thursday is a typical example of pure market manipulation" by unregulated hedge fund short sellers. His book, whose subtitle refers to the scam that elected Barack Obama, warns that the same hedge fund short sellers...

The world’s top-earning hedge fund managers have bankrolled almost exclusively Democratic campaigns, according to Silla Bush of The Hill: The top 10 highest-paid hedge fund managers in 2009 have dished out campaign contributions almost only to Democrats. Over their lifetimes, those managers have given almost $33 million in campaign contributions to Democrats, according to research by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and that is based on data maintained by the nonpartisan CQMoneyline. The same managers gave roughly $600,000 to Republicans, according to the research. The contributions went 98 percent to Democrats and two percent to Republicans.

The world’s top-earning hedge fund managers have bankrolled almost exclusively Democratic campaigns. The top 10 highest-paid hedge fund managers in 2009 have dished out campaign contributions almost only to Democrats. Over their lifetimes, those managers have given almost $33 million in campaign contributions to Democrats... The same managers gave roughly $600,000 to Republicans... The contributions went 98 percent to Democrats and two percent to Republicans. As the Senate prepares to debate possibly hundreds of amendments to a Wall Street overhaul bill, labor unions and others have criticized the bill for not having tough restrictions on hedge funds. “It’s very disconcerting...

It didn't take long for the non-scandal that allegedly threatened the reputation of Goldman Sachs to die of its own contradictions. As a public company whose sole constituent is its shareholders, evidence quickly revealed that Goldman was serving its owners well through investment vehicles meant to match the needs of both its bullish and bearish customers. Unfortunately, the non-controversy surrounding Goldman dredged up other, more dangerous notions about market speculation itself. To believe the naïve musings of commentators on the left and right, the oft-mentioned trades engineered by Goldman Sachs, along with others of the "speculative" variety, don't serve any...

"The world may still be coming out of the Great Recession, but for the richest hedge fund managers, 2009 was the best year ever. And it couldn't have happened without the carnage of 2008," the magazine said. Appaloosa Management chief David Tepper, who bet on the recovery of banks and the debt of bailed-out US insurer AIG, earned the biggest payouts with $US4 billion ($4.36 billion) in 2009, a record for the sector. US financier George Soros, the head of Soros Fund Management, took the second spot with $US3.3 billion ($3.6 billion), followed by James Simmons of Renaissance Technologies with...

The NYPost is reporting that Blackstone's president, Tony James, is throwing a party at his house for Nancy Pelosi. Their sources tell the Post that the party is meant to encourage Pelosi to vote against the proposed tax rate increase on carried interest, the profits people make on money they have invested. Raising taxes on carried interest is a hot topic because carried interests isn't really income, but some people want to tax it as if it were. Currently carried interest is taxed at 15%. The proposed tax rate for carried interest is the same as the income tax rate,...

A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro. Representatives of George Soros's investment business were among an all-star line up of Wall Street investors at an 'ideas dinner' at a private townhouse in Manhattan, according to reports. A spokesman for Soros Fund Management said the legendary investor did not attend the dinner on February 8, but did not deny that his firm was represented. At the dinner, the speculators are said to have argued that the euro is likely to plunge in value...

Whitney Tilson: US Economic Growth Will Be Feeble For Years Courtney Comstock Jan. 29, 2010, 3:47 PM Whitney Tilson predicts anemic economic growth for the next few years. His views are much like Nouriel Roubini's. They both agree that the market's signs of stabilization were not grounded in the fundamentals of economic growth - unemployment is still high, housing prices are still collapsed, and there is still a need to de-lever after decades of excessive consumption and declining savings. So in his latest letter to investors, Tilson predicts the market rally is essentially over. Once government stimulus and subsidies disappear,...

Kyle Bass Is So Bearish On Japan, He Financed His Home In Yen Joe Weisenthal Jan. 21, 2010, 8:11 PM We knew that Dallas-based Kyle Bass was bearish on Japan and the yen, but boy, this takes it to an extreme degree. Forbes reports: The Dallas hedge fund manager (no relation to the famous Bass family of Fort Worth) is so convinced the Japanese government's profligate spending will drive the nation to the brink of default that he financed his home with a five-year loan denominated in yen, which he hopes will be cheaper to pay back than dollars. We'd...

Do hedge funds have an impact on energy trading? While the answer might seem intuitive, the debate as to whether they actually do has come to resemble the medieval theological dispute about how many angels can dance on the head of the pin. Because, like angels, many trades in energy futures are invisible, and it is often not possible to pinpoint where they take place. And yet, for most of us, including lawmakers on Capitol Hill, it seems obvious that when hedge funds buy and sell billions of dollars worth of oil and gas futures, it must be having an...

John Hempton of Bronte Capital has an eye that quickly spots financial chicanery. He has been regularly reporting on the Joe Biden brother and son activities at 650 Fifth Ave in NYC. The Sydney Morning Herald has a nice story on how he busted open the hedge fund Trio, as a scam.

Jim Chanos: We're Shorting Autos, China, And Commodities But Not Financials John CarneyDec. 15, 2009, 2:16 PM Kynikos Associates founder Jim Chanos stopped by the Fast Money set for an interview with CNBC's Melissa Lee this afternoon. A few highlights from the video: * He's not short the financial sector right now, although he thinks there may be another shoe to drop and more losses. He is short some select financial names but not the sector. * There are opportunities for shorting individual companies in this market but he would recommend shorting the market as a whole. * He's shorting...

Hedge Funds Target Euro Zone's Weak BY JOANNA SLATER, GREGORY ZUCKERMAN AND CASSELL BRYAN-LOW The sudden spotlight on troubled government borrowers is presenting a long-awaited payday for investors who placed early bets against countries now under pressure. Investors including Balestra Capital Ltd., Hayman Capital Partners LP, North Asset Management LLP and Pivot Capital Management Ltd. have been anticipating such flare-ups for at a year or longer, betting that some countries would emerge from the financial crisis in much worse shape than others. Those bearish positions had led to a difficult 2009, as investor confidence picked up and rivals gained by...

Republican gubernatorial candidates Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman are looking forward to a better week, the previous seven-day period featured a bothersome news-cycle highlighting a few fiscal conflicts. For Poizner it was his use of CHP for security detail while on the campaign trail, and the fact that he WILL receive a paycheck as governor. For Meg it was a $45 million Charity Foundation's gift to environmentalists, and her $3 million hedge fund in the cayman Islands. You can read more at Hogue News today.

Charges against 14 snared in insider-trading probe make for unusually entertaining reading. The insider-trading case outlined by federal prosecutors in New York Thursday has all the elements of a classic television crime drama: wiretaps, clandestine cash handoffs and people with nicknames like "the Greek" and "octopussy." Authorities say a trader known as "the octopussy" is at the center of the ring, which included other traders, a Moody's Investors Service analyst, and hedge fund managers, and two lawyers, one of whom was a young associate who allegedly passed along tips about private-equity deals being done by his big law firm's clients....

OCTOBER 17, 2009 Rajaratnam Surfaced in U.S. Terrorism Probe By EVAN PEREZ and MATTHEW ROSENBERG WASHINGTON—The hedge-fund billionaire charged as part of a vast insider-trading case surfaced in an earlier, separate probe into U.S. fundraising by a Sri Lankan terrorist group, people familiar with the probe said. As part of that investigation, federal agents said they uncovered documents showing that Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group, was among several wealthy Sri Lankans in the U.S. whose donations to a Maryland-based charity made their way to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, according to people familiar with the probe. Raj...

Warren E. Buffett has two cardinal rules of investing. Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1. Well, a lot of old rules got trashed when the financial crisis struck — even for the Oracle of Omaha. At 79, Mr. Buffett is coming off the worst year of his long, storied career. On paper, he personally lost an estimated $25 billion in the financial panic of 2008, enough to cost him his title as the world’s richest man. (His friend and sometime bridge partner, Bill Gates, now holds that honor, according to Forbes.) And...

Companies from US, UK and Australia have the most concentrated financial power. A recent analysis of the 2007 financial markets of 48 countries has revealed that the world's finances are in the hands of just a few mutual funds, banks, and corporations. This is the first clear picture of the global concentration of financial power, and point out the worldwide financial system's vulnerability as it stood on the brink of the current economic crisis. A pair of physicists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich did a physics-based analysis of the world economy as it looked in early...

To understand this threat, we need to look at where we stand historically. If we leave aside the war-impacted years of 1942 to 1946, the largest annual deficit the United States has incurred since 1920 was 6 percent of gross domestic product. This fiscal year, though, the deficit will rise to about 13 percent of G.D.P., more than twice the non-wartime record. In dollars, that equates to a staggering $1.8 trillion. Fiscally, we are in uncharted territory. Because of this gigantic deficit, our country’s “net debt” (that is, the amount held publicly) is mushrooming. During this fiscal year, it will...

And yet Dems block offshore oil production in the U.S. Two pieces of information here. Connect the dots: 1. The Obama Administration is offering billions in loans for oil drilling off the coast of Brazil. 2. George Soros, the Dems top money man has a huge financial stake in the offshore drilling company. Obama Underwrites Offshore DrillingToo bad it's not in U.S. watersWall Street Journal AUGUST 18, 2009 You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance...