No Dave, it's called being clever.

TR, Hong Kong,

Let's get something straight here.....
It's the Hedge funds that CONTROL the market these days.
They can take the market down or up.

Louis Blanc, Liverpool, UK

why would this be true crime??? these r guys playing by the rules. whether the rules r right or not, thats not their problem

mauricio, santiago, chile

The pay of these parasites is obscene, particularly when hiundreds of millions of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America have to survive on less than a $1 per day. If anything, the article is perhaps a great recruitment advert for Al-Quaeda.

SI, Glasgow,

most of the financial instruments available for Public Purchase have oftern underperformed. The instrument is designed to fill individuals pockets usually not the investor. Unfortunately this has created a distrust in the financial institutions that needs the trust of the Public. No wonder The Public have hived their cash away into property making it an over fished over priced pond. This Crash was avoidable if Property hadn't become what was the only safe investment. The financial institutions have with Government destroyed all trust in the decency of doing a deal.

Mark, Gateshead, Tyne Wear

What kind of buffoon would pay 10x their earnings to buy a house? - Well done to Mr Gottesman and Mr LaGrange. Capitalism and investment risk go hand in hand - be it betting on the value of your house or in the financial markets.

Jim, London,

Have any of you ever heard of capitalism and the laissez-faire marketplace? I suppose the model is acceptable when your endowments and pensions receive record bonuses and growth.

Ciaran Rooney, Alton, England

All the above comments are obviously from people who have never enjoyed the benefits of wealth!

J P Le Roux, Paris, France

Hedge funds should not to blamed for the current economic situation. The money they earn comes at the expense of other hedge funds and their ultra-rich clients, not the general public.

Nick, London,

Appalling, appalling, appalling!

Judith , London ,

I work in the financial sector and I have to say that me and my colleagues were laughing into our trading screens at the ignorance of some of the comments on here. I laughed so hard I knocked over my latte and had to get the cleaner to mop it up.

It all sounds like the bitter grumblings of those who rely on government handouts, why can't you be happy for these guys and their success, you should be inspired!

Percy Thrower, London, UK

Dave, no-one has lost their homes or been driven to crime or suicide by hedge fund managers who have been successful on the markets, don't be stupid. Whether or not hedge fund managers deserve the vast bonuses they receive is another debate, but you need to remember that if the hedge fund manager is being paid a lot of money, then his fund has made a lot of money, which means that investors in the hedge fund (ie your pension fund) have also made a lot of money.

Matt, London,

I'm not particularly sure that it is a fair society that panders to envy or prejudice.

Not sure how this group causes people to lose their homes either. They're not the mortgage brokers who initiated the sub-prime mortgages and they are not the long investors in sub-prime who encouraged their prices to rise beyond justification from their fundamental values. In fact if there were more people willing to short sub-prime mortgages wouldn't have risen so much and we wouldn't have needed such a sharp repricing of risk.

Tom, Devon, UK

Wish i was younger. I'd have been a hedge fund manager.
The pay is much more attractive than my old age pension of £90 a week.

john problem, winchester, uk

You've got the wrong end of the stick David. These guys in Hedge Funds sold the over inflated assets of subprime after the 'evil' mortgage brokers and investment banks had created a monster for american citizens to hold. Hedge Funds get a bad rep but they are profiting from greed, fear and stupidity of central banks and institutions.

Kv, London,

The press also reported late last year, that HSBC paid two of its managers in the US $20 MILLION EACH in commission for their achievements in selling to the subprime mortgage market -and now suddenly us with our little overdafts are being jumped on from a great height.

CA, Manchester, UK

They made an intelligent bet on other peoples' mistakes and greed. Anyone that thinks they predicated the crash has their head in the sand. They saw an opportunity and profited from it. Well done.

KT, London,

the real tragedy of these kind of social trends is that whilst there is data to support the correlation of poverty and misery, that data shows that money does not significantly increase happiness (beyond 30,000 ish a year).

When are governments going to get wise to the science of happiness and do the responsible thing by everyone which is to start taxing the super-rich in a new tax band? The idea that this would damage the economy is sheer nonsense since most of them are investing in a limited range of products which like yachts which do not create the so-called `trickle down` effect.

David, Tokyo, Japan

It seems that the price of oil, gold, gas, electricity, interest rate, mortgage rates are controlled by the vast amounts of money held by the hedge funds.

The world daily consumption of oil is about 80 million barrels. The amount of oil held by hedge funds in futures is 2 billion barrels.

Obviously there is something wrong here.

Andy, blackburn, uk

This really is the unacceptable face of capitalism. Tthey have absolutely no morals or moral standpoint. In a fair society they would be in prison.

John S, Liverpool,

These parasitic hedge funds who profit from suffering should be taxed at 110%. There is no benefit to the economy from this false money.

Gordon Hickley, Melbourne, Australia

How many hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes to pay these vast sums?

How many people have been driven to crime or suicide?

This is true evil.

Dave Morgan, Portree, UK