Niky, i see marxism is alive and well in Berkshire. You do realise that hedge funds and private equity pay a rather large amount of tax, employ quite a large number of people and, as you said, manage investments for pension and insurance companies? Would these operations getting 'wiped out' really be such a good thing? You can argue that the amount of tax they pay should be increased, but thats a wholly different argument to the one you're making. Its people like you are actually more of a parasite on society, as you no doubt believe that rich people alone should be the ones subsidising all of your education, health and infrastructure needs.

Owen, Dublin,

What is so extraordinary about the disasters that either have or are going to happen to such impenetrable financial structures as hedge funds is the fact that they are based on a theory of risk for which its authors received Noble prizes. What is even more extraordinary is that should anyone look more closely into how securities constructed on this theory were blindly accepted by the banks as being legitimate and secure investments. There's something on these at: http://www.figurewizard.com/article.php/Credit_Crunch_Explained__A_Guide_for_Beginners

figurewizard, petersfield, hampshire

Haha Niky, I couldn't agree more! These hedge fund 'geniuses' have simply been riding a massive wave of asset price inflation over the last few years. Most of them are already multi millionaires, though, so I guess it's they that get the last laugh.

Ted, London, UK

Hedge Funds, private equity, BTL etc...all parasites on society trying to make vast amounts money without benefiting society in the least. The more of these operations wiped out by the crunch the better. The only downside is that your employer has probably been investing your pension money into such nonsense.

Niky Bush, Reading, Berkshire