This may not seem like an earth-shaking moment but it is a telling truth about where money flows, who controls it and how little ability we have to oversee the shadow banking done at the margins of our economy.
From the Financial Times:
The top 10 hedge funds made $28bn for clients in the second half of last year, $2bn more than the net profits of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and HSBC combined, according to new data.
Even the biggest of the hedge funds have only a few hundred employees, while the six banks employ 1m between them. According to the data, the top 10 funds have earned a total of $182bn for investors since they were founded, with George Soros making $35bn for clients – after all fees – since he set up his Quantum Fund in 1973.
So, first, there is the obvious point about hedge funds reaping more profits than the biggest banks combined. But, what really leaps out is how much the hedge fund world is in sync with the rest of the corporate's world to providing work: "Even the biggest of the hedge funds have only a few hundred employees, while the six banks employ 1m between them."
It's beautiful--we can make an astronomical amount of money but not share it with those grubby little people at the bottom.