Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
Bloomberg – Regulating hedge funds is one thing. Shackling them is another.
It’s difficult to tell which one is the ultimate objective of authorities in the U.S. and Europe as they push for greater oversight of these alternative investment managers.
There are reasons to worry officials will opt for whips and chains.
President Barack Obama last week showed why. Speaking of Chrysler LLC’s bankruptcy filing, he heaped blame on “a group of investment firms and hedge funds.” The funds, the president said, had refused to put wider government and auto-industry interests ahead of their own.
Cape Cod Times – General Motors Corp. could get as much as $5 billion more in federal loans, while Chrysler LLC could get $500 million as they race against government-imposed deadlines to restructure, according to a government report filed yesterday.The quarterly report by a special inspector general on the auto industry and bank bailout programs says the money will be made available for working capital. GM has until June 1 to complete restructuring plans that satisfy the government’s auto task force, while Chrysler has until April 30
Reuters – TMD Friction, a bankrupt German maker of brake pads for the auto industry, has been bought by private equity firm Pamplona Capital Management, TMD said on Friday.
Both sides declined to comment on the sale price. The acquisition will safeguard 3,800 jobs worldwide, TMD said.
"I’m delighted to be partnering with Pamplona who are highly supportive of TMD Friction and the long-term outlook for the group," TMD Friction Chief Executive Derek Whitworth said.
Business week – The idea certainly seemed all right to throngs of Americans who were outraged by news that American International Group (AIG) paid out millions of dollars in executive bonuses after it was rescued with taxpayer cash.
But would no bailout be even worse? Financial analysts and federal officials have warned that doing nothing to save AIG—or banks or the auto industry—would be a catastrophe, an economic domino effect of bank losses, stock market chaos, and job cuts. No one—at least no one in the government—has the stomach for that.
Reuters – President Barack Obama has decided to launch a government task force for restructuring the struggling U.S. auto industry instead of naming a "car czar" with sweeping powers, a senior administration official said on Sunday.
Obama is appointing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as his "designee" for overseeing auto bailout loans and as co-head of the new high-level panel together with White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers, the official said.
But Obama, who took office on January 20 and last week won congressional approval of a $787 billion economic stimulus program, has dropped the idea of having a single appointee empowered to handle the politically sensitive task of revamping America’s once-mighty auto sector.
"There is no ‘car czar,’" the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Detroit News – Several top officials in the Obama administration will tour the Washington Auto Show this week, getting a firsthand look at the auto industry’s newest offerings at a time when they are considering significant auto regulations.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Carol Browner, White House coordinator for climate and energy policy, are to tour the show and meet with top auto industry officials, the White House confirmed late Sunday.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, and Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, also will attend, spokesmen for the pair confirmed. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, is also expected to attend.
