( www.economist.com ) – Forget the leadership squabbles at the Labour and Conservative party conferences. The best story in the British press this weekend was of a deal-happy hedge-fund manager who spent £36,000 ($64,000) in a London bar in a single evening, including a £3,000 tip for the bemused waitress. It’s not the amount spent that leaves people amazed, eye-catching though it was. It’s that he was apparently so nice.
What is it about hedge funds? If lawyers hadn’t already taken all the worst jokes, hedge-fund folk would certainly be contenders. The high-paid managers of these lightly regulated investment pools are blamed for everything from the high price of oil to the crumbling of corporate governance. Yet they are looking anything but omnipotent these days, as rumbling scandals combine with so-so performance to turn many traditional investors off hedge funds before newer institutional fans are firmly committed to them.
