Stuff – As the collectivisation of middle class capital accelerated, a multiplicity of managed fund choices emerged to confuse the investor. There are active funds, passive funds, index funds, hedge funds, specialist funds trading in commodities, shares, junk debt, securitised rubbish, mortgages, small cap shares, large cap shares, contrarian funds. 

You name it, there is a manager out there for every conceivable flavour of investment approach and every conceivable investment asset. In addition you can buy ethical funds and green funds to tap into the social issues, which by the way underperform but we feel better somehow. (Ethical funds seem to outperform but this is more to do with the weight of money argument (see below) than the underlying performance of the assets).

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Tags: assets, collectivisation, commodities, contrarian funds, flavour, fund choices, funds hedge, hedge funds, index-funds, investment approach, investment asset, investor, middle class, mortgages, multiplicity, passive funds, rubbish, small cap, social issues, specialist funds

The Business Insider – Barack Obama’s decision to paint the hedge funds in the Chrysler case as anti-American obstructionists is prompting death threats against them.

That’s at least what their lead laywer Thomas Lauria is saying, reports The Detroit News. He said in court that the threats have been turned over to the FBI.

We assume Lauria is being honest — you don’t say this stuff in court and turn it over to the FBI if it’s rubbish — though we’ll note that Lauria is being pretty provocative in his attempt to win the war of public opinion in the Chrysler case. He’s of course been airing the complain that one redoubt, Parella Weinberg, only decided to go along with the Rattner plan upon receiving thuggish threats of intimidation.

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Tags: barack obama, business insider, chrysler, death threats, detroit news, fbi, intimidation, lauria, parella weinberg, public-opinion, rattner, redoubt, rubbish