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Evening Standard – Jim Chanos said that Mr Brown, while Chancellor of the Exchequer, was given a briefing that predicted banks were in dire danger – more than a year before the crisis hit last year.
Mr Chanos, who made his name correctly predicting the downfall of Enron, said that Mr Brown and other G7 finance ministers were told of the “canary in the coal mine” but chose to carry on regardless.
The Washington Times – Hedge-fund managers say Bernard L. Madoff may succeed where Christopher Cox failed: forcing regulation of their $1.5 trillion industry.
Mr. Madoff’s purported bilking of investors by up to $50 billion begins to uncover a part of the investment industry that has skirted government scrutiny. Although the 70-year-old was registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency Mr. Cox heads, fund executives who fed him customers’ money weren’t.
"This is an Enron moment for hedge funds," said Peter Rup, chief investment officer at New York-based hedge fund Orion Capital Management LLC, with $400 million in assets under management. "Regulation would be welcome, primarily from a trust standpoint."
Evening Standard – Veterans of the secretive $1.5 trillion (£1 trillion) industry say the $50 billion Madoff fraud could bring about sweeping changes in the way the authorities monitor activity.
"This is an Enron moment for hedge funds," said Peter Rup, chief investment officer at New York hedge fund Orion Capital Management. "Regulation would be welcome, primarily from a trust standpoint."
Enron, once the world’s largest energy-trading firm, collapsed in 2001 amid allegations of accounting fraud. Less than a year later, US lawmakers passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which set tighter corporate accountability rules for publicly traded companies.
Suggestions for rule changes for hedge funds include strengthening whistleblower programmes and imposing capital requirements similar to those for mutual funds. Rup and others argue this would restore confidence in the market.
