George Soros to close hedge fund to avoid disclosure

The Financial Times (UK) is reporting that George Soros will restrict his Quantum Fund to insiders only, mainly in order to avoid mandated disclosure under new regulations.

Surprising? It shouldn't be. This is similar to what we've seen happen over and over again. In FINC 4331 we discuss how hedge funds are driven offshore, and how investment banks went to London after Glass-Steagall was passed back in the '30s.

Another note: Soros is content with asking for more regulation, but only if it doesn't apply to him. He seems to spend a great deal of time and energy convincing the rest of us that things such as global warming taxes and financial controls are good things, and then he uses his massive resources to figure out how to profit from or avoid those regulations. This behaviour among industrialists is a side effect of what economists have traditionally called the "mixed economy". Historians have also referred to it as "fascism" on occasion.

He "did it all for the unions."

Ron Bloom, the White House czar behind the auto bailout, is in dutch with Congress over something he claimed he never said. Two different sources have stated that he said it, although one suggests that he was just making a funny.

The fact that the UAW ended up making out like bandits in the auto bailout is well documented elsewhere. Regardless of whether such a comment was made in jest, it's still in poor taste. The auto bailout will end up changing the face of US industry, and probably not for the better. It's the cavalier attitude of some of the folks in Washington, on both sides of the aisle, that is getting the populace rankled these days.

Venezuela, the Worker's Paradise, begins rationing food: Castro smiles.

The Chavez government introduced the "Good Life Card" in order to control shortages. It's being compared to Cuba's card system. What a great program to emulate!

Gotta love that snappy title: Good Life Card. Herr Goebbels would be proud. Papa Joe is laughing, and Chairman Mao wishes that HE'D have thought of that one. Propaganda just never gets old, does it?

Trouble is, this guy could get desperate. He could even start seizing businesses and nationalizing them.

Wait, that's already happened. I wonder how that's working out for them down there.

Next they'll be aligning themselves with lame-o washed up actors and kooks from Hollywood.

Wait, that's happened already too.

Man, these guys think of EVERYTHING.

I guess they forgot to think of the problem of INCENTIVES. Next time they hold a People's Revolution (coup d'etat, that is), someone had better think to bring some sandwiches and pop. They're gonna get mighty hungry, and hungry people can be made to do just about anything.