Opinion: Hedge fund managers’ pay slashed to $211,538 an hour

[Botany]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hedge-fund-managers-pay-slashed-to-211538-an-hour-2015-05-05


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Talk about stagnant wages. In the hedge fund industry, it’s worse. How about wage cuts?

Institutional Investor’s Alpha annual rich list was published Tuesday. And for the hedge fund billionaires and multimillionaires who mostly comprise it, the report is sobering. Massive pay reductions were recorded across the board. David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa Management, for instance, made only $400 million last year — he’s averaged $1.36 billion in the 11 years he’s made the IIA list.

As the publication put it, managers made only “$11.62 billion combined, barely half of the $21.15 billion the top 25 gained the previous year and roughly equal to what they took home during nightmarish 2008.”

snip

For a little perspective, the $11.62 billion earned by the top 25 hedge fund managers is:

Equivalent to the income of 220,000 U.S. households, based on the median.

Equivalent to an hourly wage of $211,538 an hour for a 40-hour work week.

Enough to rebuild Nepal five times based on the damage estimate of $2 billion.

Enough to buy 39 B1-B Lancer bombers.

Enough to pay the salary of the president of the United States at its current rate, $400,000, for 27,500 years.

Enough to pay the annual premium ($3,684) for a full-coverage Obamacare health plan for 2.99 million Americans.

Or the president, the U.S. Air Force, teachers, the Nepalese, and Americans without health insurance could have simply invested in the Kensington and Wellington funds.

[daredtowork]

1. That's Bush's Argument: Put it in a 401-K

Some retirees will get fabulously rich. And some retirees will end up with nothing.

That defeats the whole purpose and philosophy of Social Security.

Those hedge fund managers should be paying their fair share of taxes - not continuing to tell people they should replace the social safety net with the market.

[econoclast]

2. Question

Unless you are an investor in one of these hedge funds, why do you care?

I suppose I have some idle curiosity about the people who are willing to pay an investment manager 2% of assets under management plus 20% of the profits. It seems confiscatory. But, hey, its not my money. If someone is dumb enough to pay the fee, and has the scratch to do so .... All I can do is roll my eyes and conclude that there is indeed a sucker born every minute.

On the other hand, if my pension fund was one of the dummies paying a money manager those fees I'd make it my business to raise hell.

[pansypoo53219]

3. pushing money around is lucrative. but not productive AT ALL. the lampreys of society.

[hobbit709]

4. I have a cure in mind for their little problems.