The unlamented decline of the hedge-fund manager

Hedge funds are dying, as ever more close their doors to new investors. But they won't be mourned, says Matthew Lynn. The only value they delivered was to their founders.

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Hedge funds won't be mourned

For much of the last 15 years, it was hard to look at any rich list without seeing some young hedge-fund manager who had made themselves a few hundred million by trading in some exotic instrument that few of us had ever heard of. For most young financiers, hedge fundswas the sector to work in the founders made tens of millions, while the staff were invariably paid far more than they would be elsewhere.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.