Hedge Funds and the Financial Crisis

It wasn't enough that the top 10% control almost half of the total income of the United States taxpayers, nor was it enough that they incited inflation with speculating in commodities and oil in particular, but they had to destroy our IRA's and 401k's while they were doing it.

You have to have a million dollars to join most hedge funds. They speculated heavily in the markets with about 30 dollars of debt for every dollar of assets. When the housing market and the stock market began dropping, they moved into commodities. They bought insurance against their gambles with credit default swaps paying a small premium and passing the risk of loss to investment firms and insurance companies. They shorted stocks while the market fell often getting caught, as in the case of Volkswagen, and created the wild swings of 5 to 10% upwards
and downwards movement in the stock market.

Almost everyone got caught up in the greed of the housing boom but no one was greedy as the rich and the hedge funds who have been allowed to wreck the life styles of the working American.



Joe