One hedge fund manager, who wasn’t involved in the Chrysler rescue, has harsh words for Obama over his criticism of funds that balked at the automaker deal.
Obama said hedge funds were hoping that everybody else would make sacrifices, and they would have to make none and that some demanded twice the return that other lenders were getting
“I am…aghast at the President’s comments.” Further, he says, “The President’s comments here are backwards and libelous,” Clifford Asness, founder of AQR Capital wrote in an open letter on Obama’s criticism of hedge funds.
AQR manages $20 billion from Greenwich, Conn.
“Here’s a shock. When hedge funds… lend their money they expect to get it back.”
Of course, he says, they realize they risk not getting paid back, but usually they at least get something.
“Bankruptcy court is about figuring out how to most fairly divvy up the remaining assets based on who is owed what and whose contracts come first.”
Instead, the Obama administration tried to impose a settlement.
“Hedge funds really need a community organizer,” Asness writes sarcastically, referring to Obama’s early career as an activist in Chicago.
And what does he expect from his letter? “I am ready for my ‘personalized’ tax rate now.”
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