<i>"...tell you they have a "tiny" hedge fund already worth 500 million and they can give you a return on your investment within one year, and in 5 they’ll be worth a few hundred BILLION. Oh, and if they fail the Fed will bail them out so there’s no risk."</i><p>As far as I know, the Fed did not directly bail out any hedge funds, except those internal to big banks. The last 2 years were a blood bath in the hedge fund world, with hundreds of shops closing down. Zed's text is amusing, but it does not reflect reality all that accurately.<p>Last but not least, I have never heard of a hedge fund worth hundreds of billions. A 1-billion fund is common, but hundreds of billions? When Jim Simons of RenTec started talking of a 100-billion hedge fund in 2006, everyone was so excited...