It’s WealthPorn Day today, also known as the day that Alpha magazine releases its annual list of the top-earning hedge fund managers. Of course, that also makes it a great day for politicians, including Hank Paulson, to call for greater regulation of the hedge-fund industry.
George Soros is at #2 on the list with income of $2.9 billion: I’m impressed that he’s even eligible, given that he doesn’t actually manage his Quantum Endowment fund. (Julian Robertson, who made a ten-figure sum himself, was excluded from the list on the grounds that he "doesn’t have outside investors", which makes me wonder why James Simons’s Medallion fund was included.)
I’m also mildly tickled by the fact that the chief critic of these paydays, in Jenny Anderson’s story about the list, is billionaire Pimco founder Bill Gross. Obviously some ways of making megabucks are more kosher than others.