How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour: Why Hedge Funds Get Away with Siphoning Off America's Wealth

270 Pages·2013·0.81 MB·English

by  Les Leopold

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How to Make
a Million Dollars
an Hour
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How to Make
a Million Dollars
an Hour
Why Hedge Funds Get Away with
Siphoning Off America’s Wealth
Les Leopold
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Copyright © 2013 by Les Leopold. All rights reserved
Jacket Design: Wendy Mount
Jacket Photograph: © John Kuczala/Getty Images
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Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leopold, Les.
How to make a million dollars an hour : why hedge funds get away with
siphoning off America’s wealth / Les Leopold.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-23924-7 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-43814-5 (ebk);
ISBN 978-1-118-43811-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-43812-1 (ebk)
1. Hedge funds. 2. Investment advisors. 3. Wealth. 4. Income distribution.
I. Title.
HG4530.L423 2013
332.64'524—dc23
2012025744
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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With love to Frank,
Alvina, and Darlene Szymanski
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Contents
Introduction 1
Step 1 Reach for the Stars—and Beyond 5
Step 2 Take, Don’t Make 25
Step 3 Rip Off Entire Countries Because
That’s Where the Money Is 48
Step 4 Use Other People’s Money 62
Step 5 Create Something You Can Pretend
Is Low Risk and High Return 78
Step 6 Rig Your Bets 97
Step 7 Don’t Say Anything Remotely Truthful 113
Step 8 Have the Right People Whispering in Your Ear 136
Step 9 Bet on the Race after You Know Who Wins 159
Step 10 Milk Millions in Special Tax Breaks 183
Step 11 Claim That Limits on Speculation Will Kill Jobs 204
Step 12 Distract the Dissenters 221
Conclusion 237
Acknowledgments 241
References 243
Index 251
vii
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