With the Dow trading over 10,700 again, the crisis of 2008 is growing long of tooth. Investors are growing short of memory. And many hedgies, who shuttered their funds due to performance, are making a comeback.
In today’s New York Times, Andrew Sorkin describes the sweetheart taxes for hedge-fund and private-equity partners as follows:
General partners at private equity funds, who take a cut of the investment gains they earn for their investors in the form of “carried interest,” have been paying federal taxes worth only 15 percent of that cut.
This means the “gods of Greenwich” receive about a 24.6 percent tax break. That’s because the highest bracket on ordinary income—currently 35 percent—is expected to return to 39.6 percent. And the gods don’t pay taxes on their carried interests until they liquidate and pull out the cash.
The Huffington Post posted this video of a trader freaking out last Thursday. If you haven’t seen this video yet, spend a few minutes on this one.
In our judicial system, judges recuse themselves when there are conflicts of interest. I’d like to see the same thing in Congress. The only problem—it’s not clear the Senate could field the necessary quorum to hold a vote.
Is paranoia necessary to survive on Wall Street?
In one sense, Goldman Sachs is no different from any other investment bank on Wall Street. When it comes to protecting the brand, junior employees are expendable. Like goldfish, investment banks eat their young when self-interest make cannibalism seem rationale.
Earlier this week, I described the Magnetar Trade—the idea that a hedge fund can promote a CDO and bet against the same pool of assets. I have no idea whether the SEC’s charges involve Magnetar, but one thing is clear even now.
Other law suits will follow.