Remember The Bonfire of the Vanities? We’re not talking about that time in 1497 when grumpy Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly torched a bundle of sinful objects in Florence–such as cosmetics, mirrors and splendid dresses, but Tom Wolfe’s cynical satire of 1980s New York. Sherman McCoy, a gloriously arrogant investment banker, is the book’s cynosure; he is one of our first–albeit fictional–hedge fund bods.
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GLG Partners, one of the U.K. capital’s biggest hedge funds, and Philippe Jabre, one of its heavyweight traders, are under investigation by the Financial Services Authority–an independent body that regulates that country’s financial services industry, much like the U.S.’ Securities and Exchange Commission.