(Screencapture: New York Times Online Edition, 4/1/10)
This isn't an April Fool's joke.
The Lazarus-like recovery of the nation’s big banks did not benefit just the bankers — it also created huge paydays for hedge fund managers, including a record $4 billion gain in 2009 for one bold investor who bet big on the financial sector...
The manager, David Tepper, wagered that the government would not let the big banks fail... That strategy handed Mr. Tepper, a plain-spoken Pittsburgh native who first made his name at Goldman Sachs, the top spot on the annual ranking of top earners in the hedge fund industry by AR: Absolute Return+Alpha magazine...
[Note: Tepper is the Putin-like figure at top left in the photo above.]
“There are the haves and the have-nots,” said Sandy Gross, managing partner of Pinetum Partners, an executive recruiter for hedge funds. “These guys are the exceptions. You’re talking about the top people at top firms...”
And, of course, It did not hurt that the Treasury Department was a fellow investor, buying preferred stock and warrants to help steady the faltering balance sheets of the banks...
Mr. Tepper... also benefited from a successful investment in bonds of American International Group, the giant insurance company that was also rescued by the government.
Rescued by the government; of course. So much money to be made at the top levels of the pyramid. The sound of grunting and oinking around the trough is dreadful. Simply dreadful. Why, you can't hear a child, crying in hunger, for all the noise.
In a culture so motivated by profit, fascinated by celebrity and focused on personal enrichment, you end up with a culture that produces another kind of line-up:
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