Free Republic

The billionaire hedge fund manager at the center of an alleged fraud hatched at Goldman Sachs, a leading investment bank, has given tens of thousands of dollars to both parties. Campaign fundraising records show that John A. Paulson, founder and chairman of the hedge fund Paulson & Co., gave $30,400 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in June, qualifying him as a major Democratic donor. He also gave $2,300 to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) reelection campaign in February of last year and $4,800 to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) last April, according to records filed at...

The SEC has filed civil charges against Goldman Sachs and its banker Fabrice Tourre for its role in structuring subprime mortgages, which it structured at the behest of hedge funders like John Paulson. Goldman shares are off 10%. At issue is the lack of disclosure of Paulson's role in selecting the assets that went into the CDOs. There is also an allegation that John Paulson was presented as having gone long the CDO, when in fact he was short.

In a span of just three years, hedge-fund manager John Paulson went from practically unknown to practically unparalleled. After a series of smart bets against the housing market made Paulson's hedge fund billions of dollars—including days where it made more than $1 billion—he earned a place alongside George Soros and Warren Buffett as an oracle of investing. In his new book, The Greatest Trade Ever, Gregory Zuckerman, a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, examines how the unlikely team of Paulson and assistant Paolo Pellegrini—as well as a few other investors—bucked conventional wisdom and saw through the housing hype. Who...

The Post hit the nail right on the head when it reported exclusively last September that the US narrowly averted a crash of the financial markets, it was recently revealed. In the days after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, there was a run on the country's money market funds as investors feared the bonds held by the funds would collapse - which The Post reported in a Sept. 21 story entitled "Almost Armageddon." Rep. Paul Kanjorski, of the House Finance Committee, confirmed the bank run recently. .....

The worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made disaster in which we all played a part.In the second part of a week-long series looking behind the slump,Guardian City editor Julia Finch picks out the individuals who have led us into the current crisis Alan Greenspan, chairman of US Federal Reserve 1987- 2006Only a couple of years ago the long-serving chairman of the Fed, a committed free marketeer who had steered the US economy through crises ranging from the 1987 stockmarket collapse through to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, was lauded with...

Two young men, traders on John Paulson’s staff, come into his hedge fund’s office seeking advice on whether to buy a certain debt security. Sitting just a few feet away, I have no idea what Paulson tells them. His slightly high-pitched voice is so soft that on the rare occasions he is forced to speak in public, he’s easily drowned out by the rustling of papers or the clearing of throats. When he appeared before a U.S. House committee in November to try to explain how he had lavishly profited while countless others had suffered, Paulson spoke so gently, even...

US hedge fund bosses threaten to move to Britain • Billionaires battle against threat of regulation • Soros says he would happily pay income tax America's top hedge fund managers staunchly defended the conduct of their secretive, high-risk industry yesterday and warned Congress that knee-jerk regulation could push financial jobs across the Atlantic to London. In a rare day of public scrutiny, the billionaire bosses of five leading hedge funds appeared before the house oversight committee to answer charges that their unregulated bets on financial markets have destabilised the global economy. George Soros, Kenneth Griffin, Philip Falcone, Jim Simons and...

Abstract: Five of the world's richest hedge fund managers, including George Soros, the man who the broke the Bank of England, have been called to account by US politicians for their role in the collapse of the global financial system. The quintet – including John Paulson, who made $3.7bn (£2.49bn) last year betting against the US mortgage market – were grilled over their roles in buying unregulated derivatives products, which some politicians believe contributed to the financial markets' meltdown. The men, who each earned more than $1bn each last year, were called to account by Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, who...