Hedge fund fallout & Other Merry Weather

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Oct 1 10:36:45 PDT 1998


James Farmelant wrote:


>A short while ago I was watching some of Al Greenspan's testimony
>before the House Banking Committee concerning hedge funds.
>Greenspan was arguing that hedge funds should be regulated by
>the free market rather than by the government but as Barney Frank
>pointed out this argument was inconsistent with his defense of
>the government's facilitation of the bailout of LCTM. Apparently,
>for this one-time disciple of Ayn Rand government intervention
>is fine when it benefits wealthy investors.

Oh, but there was systemic risk! If you're really rich & you fuck up, you can take out enough innocent bystanders that the government just *has* to step in, you see. With the less fortunate recipients of public welfare, the morally debilitating effects of dependency are foregrounded.

Doug



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