Live-Blogging The Waxman Witch Trial: Hedge Fund Edition

Posted by Bess Levin, Nov 13, 2008, 10:07am

10:10: Obviously, I'm upset about the fact that a certain someone is not present but I'm going to forge ahead and maybe I'll make a trip up to Stamford later to get a comment about how he thinks the proceedings went.

10:12: PS, which C-SPAN is this on? 70 is Dodd and his hair. (Just kidding: I'M THERE LIVE, peasants).

10:22: Andrew Lo: "hedge funds can withdraw liquidity at a moment's notice."

10:25: What do you think the big guys are doing while waiting off stage? Plotting to take down Goldman?

10:27: The MIT grad imparts the wisdom that hedge funds don't have to report their performances to any regulator (he'd like to change this).

10:33: Joseph Bankman is talking about taxes and boring the living fuck out of everyone, especially Representative Sarbanes.

10:34: Houman Shadab actually defends short sellers, so I feel good about him.

10:45: "I'm just a tax expert, you don't want my opinion on that [CDOs]."

10:53: Rep. Elijah Cummings wants to know if there's "something special about these guys and ladies that they get the 15 percent tax treatment?"

10:54: Cummings, who's usually excellent and was the one blowing a gasket over AIG spending thousands on "manicures and pedicures," has the gall to name drop "Joe the Plumber."

10:59: Skip to 1:20

11:11: Rep. Mark Souder wants to know where the pension managers were.

"The housing market was going bananas."

11:11: Andrew Lo: "As Warren Buffet says 'A rising tide lifts all boats." Buffett also says "a cheap prostitute still has a vagina."

11:12: Rep. Stephen Lynch is discussing how LTCM and Amaranth were "different." You know what time it is:

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11:22 Rep. Yarmuth takes issue with "5 percent of all trades on the NYSE being executed by one trader," which leads me to this: will the Big Guy get mentioned today? Or does he have some sort of gag order in place?

11:35: 2 things. 1. When Rep. Cooper says "wanna be hedge fund managers," who do we think he's talking about? SC? Or Tim Sykes. 2. I like that C-SPAN keeps flashing the definition of a hedge fund on the screen, which I'm guessing is for the benefit of our congressmen and women.

11:40: Sarbanes is dying to whip out the wrap it up box on Andrew Lo.

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11:45: Andrew Lo wants an "education minimum."

11:51: Guy in the hideous pistachio tie literally bows out of every question. "I'm just a tax guy, so I'll pass," he says cracking himself up.

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