Hedge Fund Manager Profiled

In a number of early posts here and here, this blogger has wondered about the need to regulate hedge funds in addition to mundane matters such as their contribution to the financial markets and public welfare. In the current issue of the New Yorker magazine, John Cassidy has profiled one of the masters of the hedge fund business. As the story reveals, it is a complex business that matches the high returns with equally high volatility and risks.

Accepting that the story speaks for itself, this blogger's point remains that the high returns come with equally elevated levels of risk. The nature of the business too points to the colorful personalities and high intelligence that is required to make sense of its here. Still, it exposes the fact that guessing markets is risky even for the highly intelligent people men who run them. Governments should let them be.