It’s been made perfectly clear by everyone with something to lose from Europe’s ever-changing-but-still-draconian hedge fund regulation proposals that they’ll be a disaster. Hedge funds will leave in droves, London will be left a ghost town with tumbleweed rolling down Knightsbridge Road, subsistence farming in Hyde Park and (most terrifyingly) slightly less rich people occupying Mayfair townhouses.
So, yes, we get it: The regulations are going to hurt. But one lawyer is not content to leave the fearmongering at a reasonable level.
The regulations, watered down or not, will wash the European Union clean of hedge funds, according to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Michael Raffan.
…the impact would be “rapid and decisive… no hedge funds will operate from within the EU.”
None! Not a one! Real wrath of God-type-stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes… The Dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats, living together! Mass hysteria.
It’s already here.
Hedge funds are much more mobile than banks. It’s much easier for three guys in Mayfar to pack their bags and move to Geneva.
I thought you were dead?
Hyberbole?
@2 – Shaz was recently released from the hospital with minor burns to his tongue (something about an electric cattle prod and pissing Bess off for touching her SC deck of cards)…I digress… it’s a lisp you detect in the headline.
@Tax Chick:
Always in the know. I was worried my professional lingo was going stale.
JS, do your flagging career as a finacial blogger/journalist a favor and get yourself invited to a bullshit hedgefund Xmas party ASAP.
@5 you’re a tool. but surely you knew that already.
5 = bitter he wasn’t at hanks.
If I’m wrong then nothing happens and you
toss us in the can. But if I’m right, and if we can stop this thing … well, let’s just say that you could save the lives of a lot of registered voters.
Here comes the eurotrash.
Avoid spending too much time in Switzerland. The place has a disturbing invasion of the body snatchers vibe.
How did you manage to misspell “Mayfair” in a quote when it’s correct in the linked article and earlier in this post?
More like hypobole to me…
DB thought it was worth taking note that a paid shill is going on about HFs leaving over a little matter of regulation? More T&A would be preferable …
@11
What do you want from that yankee tosser?
There is no Knightsbridge Rd in London, you wanker.
@14– Clearly the Shazbot road into town without an A to Zed.
Bess levin: Your mission is to proceed up the Thames River in a Navy patrol boat. Pick up Shazbot’s path at London, follow it and learn what you can along the way. When you find Shazbot, infiltrate his team by whatever means available and terminate the his command.
Equity Private: Terminate the Shazz?
Bess Levin: He’s out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field writing bullshit.
Greg Michaels: Terminate with extreme prejudice.
Bess Levin: You understand, Private, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist…
Outstanding, #16, outstanding. Get you a case of beer for that one.
outstanding #16, outstanding. Get you a case of beer for that one.