[Tax-chick]

... I think it’s going to be a plan that makes people happy, other than maybe the hedge fund guys, who make hundreds of millions of dollars and pay very little tax. I mean, those guys will not exactly love me.”

You can't win an election without giving your potential supporters someone to hate. We don't have massive, systemic political and economic problems that have been decades in the making. It's just those evil hedge fund guys, not paying their fair share!

I wonder how many voters even know what a hedge fund is and how it works. I can't give a definition off the top of my head ... I'd have to look it up.

[Starboard]

I wonder how many voters even know what a hedge fund is and how it works.

****************
Its a very expensive financial mechanism and one that does not always produce good results. Not unlike our government.

[Tax-chick]

Like a mutual fund, but private, with someone different regulatory structure:

A hedge fund is an investment vehicle and a business structure that pools capital from a number of investors and invests in securities and other instruments.[1] It is administered by a professional management firm, and often structured as a limited partnership, limited liability company, or similar vehicle. Hedge funds are generally distinct from mutual funds as their use of leverage is not capped by regulators and distinct from private equity funds as the majority of hedge funds invest in relatively liquid assets.

[...]

While hedge funds have existed for many decades, they have become increasingly popular in recent years, growing to be one of the world's major investment vehicles and sources of capital.

Their status as tax-villains seems to have been achieved by their taking advantage of offshore domiciling in tax havens like the Cayman Islands.

[odawg]

“You can’t win an election without giving your potential supporters someone to hate.”

Trump emphasized that the plan would make people happy, not that it would give supporters someone to hate. Most of us support Trump because he gives us some optimism that things will change; we are not interested in hate; hate will not repair what needs to change. Most of us ARE already angry. Just mention Boehner, McConnell, gutless politicians, etc.

[LS]

I am with you, but surely you understand that "hedge fund guys" is rhetorical language for the Lehman Bros., investment bankers that gave us the 2008 meltdown. I have a friend, finance guy at Columbia, who has written extensively on this. Those CEOs had specific, advance warning that they were carrying way too many "toxic" mortgage assets and ignored their own inside advisers.

So, yeah, there will be "demons" to focus on, with only themselves to blame.

[sockhead]

I wonder how many voters even know what a hedge fund is and how it works.

Most voters don't know how a small business works. They believe that a business selling a product for $100 collects a $100 profit.

[MichaelCorleone]

I don’t think there is a standard definition of a hedge fund.

I always thought the so-called hedge fund had a much wider latitude with their investors, such as the use of options, shorting stocks or indexes, venturing into forex or commodities when warranted, etc.

But I’ve been told I’m wrong (although no one seems to know what the right answer is).

[Jane Long]

Trump isn’t attacking hedge funds, just wanting to even the taxpaying field on guys like HF managers...who pay relatively low taxes, compared to the incomes they’re making.

HF managers aren’t paying taxes on ALL of their income....where as you and I are (unless, of course, you happen to be a hedge fund manager :).

We’ll have to see exactly what his proposed tax policy plan is, on Monday.