Thu 5 Mar 2009

« Don’t Get It

Coming Out @ Ephblog in 2009 »

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6 Responses to “Bethany McLean on Hedge Funds”

1. jeffz says:

   Well I tried and failed twice to embed that video. If someone wants to fix, go right ahead.

   March 5th, 2009 at 6:59 am



2. eyetolduso says:

   Worked with Wes Edens at Smith Barney when he young. He traded adjustable agency MBS, a new product at that time. When he quit to go to Lehman I got stuck trading his positions for 6 months until we found a replacement. Smart guy, driven, you could tell then he was going to get very rich.

   March 5th, 2009 at 8:56 am



3. frank uible says:

   This Michael Lewis is not to be confused with Williams’ esteemed Michael Lewis.

   March 5th, 2009 at 9:14 am



4. Ronit says:

   With the recent addition of McLean and Lewis, Vanity Fair has suddenly become worth reading. Both articles are very good. Thanks for posting, Jeff.

   (I added the video to your article… hope you don’t mind.)

   March 5th, 2009 at 10:15 am



5. sophmom says:

   And for smart youngsters—or those who thought they were smart—coming out of Harvard Business School, or with a few years on Wall Street, well, how else could you get rich so quickly?

   I know one of these kids. Really smart, really nice young man with great parents…went straight from Harvard to one of the firms mentioned in Bethany’s article. He hated it, felt it was soulless, quit and walked away. From the way his mom tells it, he was horrified by the blatant sexism.

   Bethany is a real addition to Vanity Fair. Like Ronit, I have mostly stopped reading it. But between this and the sidebar photo of “Comedy’s New Legends”, I might have to reconsider.

   March 5th, 2009 at 10:51 am



6. Ronit says:

   My one complaint about Bethany – she really doesn’t have enough new material to justify a 6,000 word piece. A lot of juicy detail about Fortress, but the rest is a rehash that anyone reading the WSJ over the last few months is perfectly familiar with. At least it’s proof that Williams teaches us to pad out an essay quite well! (My hunch is that Bethany thinks she’s writing for a “general audience” and therefore feels obligated to supply background, but the main details of the financial crisis have already pretty much saturated the consciousness of the public, or at least the part of it that reads Vanity Fair)

   Now, Michael Lewis’s piece, on the other hand, is fascinating through and through, and doesn’t waste a single paragraph. He has been really on form lately.

   March 5th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

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