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.
Forbes – Hedge fund firm Moore Capital Management is looking to raise up to $500 million for two new hedge funds it has launched for star fund manager Greg Coffey, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
The firm, run by Louis Bacon, is seeking to raise $250 million each for two emerging markets-focused funds that were launched at the start of April, the source said.
Politico – On the same day Lawrence Summers was announced as President-elect Barack Obama’s top White House economics adviser, the veteran economist said he would resign as the part-time managing director of one of the nation’s largest and most successful hedge funds, D.E. Shaw & Co.
But even as Summers takes the lead of economic policy thinking for the Obama White House, which has promised to be one of the most open and transparent in history, neither the Obama transition team nor D.E. Shaw would say exactly what Summers had done in his two years of work for the $36 billion hedge fund, or how much he has been paid.
In a press release issued Monday, D.E. Shaw said only that Summers had been working on “various strategic initiatives, high-level research and advising the executive committee on the overall business.”
AP – President George W. Bush has granted pardons to 14 individuals and commuted the prison sentences of two others convicted of misdeeds ranging from drug offenses to tax evasion, from wildlife violations to bank embezzlement, The Associated Press learned Monday.
The new round of White House pardons are Bush’s first since March and come less than two months before he will end his presidency. The crimes committed by those on the list also include offenses involving hazardous waste, food stamps, and the theft of government property.
Toledo Blade – President-elect Barack Obama is forming a White House leadership team that combines experienced Washington insiders who can help build a bridge with Congress and trusted associates who share his Chicago roots.
The West Wing appointments that Mr. Obama has announced in recent days stand in contrast to those of President Bush, who relied heavily on fellow Texans for top posts. They had virtually no experience dealing with Congress, nor did the former Texas governor who was their boss.
Mr. Obama comes to the Oval Office with an ambitious list of campaign promises that will require Capitol Hill’s cooperation and approval, and his team is heavy on the legislative experience that Mr. Obama is lacking. He resigned his Illinois Senate seat yesterday after just under four years of service, half of which he spent out on the presidential campaign trail.
Bloomington Pantagraph – Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday brushed aside Republican charges that his tax plan amounts to socialism, but acknowledged it involves “spreading around opportunity’’ so that wealthier Americans — like himself — pay a little more to help lower-rung workers. |
Obama noted that when President Bush’s tax cuts were first proposed, his opponent for the White House, Republican John McCain, opposed them as irresponsibly targeted.
“Was John McCain a socialist back in 2000?’’ Obama asked at a news conference. Responding to the late-campaign line of attack repeated daily by McCain and running mate Sarah Palin, he said: “I think it’s an indication that they have run out of ideas.’’
Obama commented at a news conference after meeting with foreign policy and military luminaries to discuss “urgent issues’’ facing the country from abroad, an attempt to inoculate himself against the fresh charge from the McCain side that he is too untested for the White House.
Washington Post – That is the technical economic term that best sums up a day in which the House of Representatives refuses to pass a $700 billion rescue plan pushed by the White House and congressional leaders from both parties, Wachovia is taken over in a deal that will have the government potentially owning 10 percent of Citigroup, a few European banks fail, the Federal Reserve and other central banks are forced to inject an additional $300 billion into the global banking system, the Dow Jones industrial average plunges 778 points, and investors everywhere rush to the safety of gold and short-term Treasury bills.
The basic problem here is that too many people don’t understand the seriousness of the situation.
Americans fail to understand that they are facing the real prospect of a decade of little or no economic growth because of the bursting of a credit bubble that they helped create and that now threatens to bring down the global financial system.
