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Saturday, April 04, 2009

Summers and the hedge fund 

By TigerHawk at 4/04/2009 03:59:00 PM


Everybody and his brother is bent over Larry Summers having earned a big wad from speaking (a source of income that should provoke suspicion about anybody who is not a comedian) and serving as the director of a hedge fund. Then I got to wondering, did Summers' hedge fund trade the housing bubble, and would we feel better about Summers advising President Obama if we knew how his hedge fund traded the bubble. For example, if D.E. Shaw shorted housing, we (or some of us) might admire Summers' perspicacity but deplore him for being "part of the problem." Made me wonder. So I though, why not take a poll? Herewith, the Larry Summers hedge fund poll:



Knowing that Larry Summers made a pile as director of a hedge fund, under what circumstances would you think better of him?
I would think better of him if his fund shorted the housing bubble, because that might mean Summers has a clue.
I would think better of him if his fund stayed long the housing bubble, because it means he was bullish on America; we need more of that right now.
It would not matter, because securities trading, like life, is a random walk.
It would not matter, because hedge funds are inherently vile institutions.
  
Free polls from Pollhost.com


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4 Comments:

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Sat Apr 04, 07:16:00 PM:

Shaw is a dyed-in-the-wool quant fund. All their trading is algorithmic and it's highly unlikely that they put directional bets on anything, let alone the housing market. Only if you think connections to Wall Street are corrupting in and of themselves should Summer's involvement with Shaw matter. What he actually did there was likely highly technical and completely irrelevant to what he's doing now.  

By Anonymous gus, at Sat Apr 04, 09:26:00 PM:

I don't care. We need to limit compensation and we need to start at the top.
Oprah first, then Brad Pitt, then Opiebama, then Larry Sommers.
To each according to his need.
From each according to his ability to con the public.  

By Anonymous feeblemind, at Sun Apr 05, 07:06:00 AM:

I would have thought more highly of him if he had stayed out of Government. The administration doesn't care an iota about the health of the economy. We have crossed the threshold from market capitalism to crony and klepto capitalism. Administration officials only care about enriching themselves and influential supporters and to hell with everyone else.  

By Blogger Brian, at Sun Apr 05, 10:20:00 AM:

Among the things I don't understand about this crisis is why didn't the apparently-massive amount of short selling puncture the housing bubble. Apparently the funds that went long on housing used the short sellers in a way I don't understand to double up on their bets. This seems like a strange sort of market failure that needs explanation.  

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