More Hedge Fund Regulation?

Dealbook reports that Connecticut is considering some pretty drastic regulation of hedge funds. Well, not drastic by a layperson's standards, but by the standards of the loosely regulated hedge fund biz.

The Dealbook item, quoting a Connecticut newspaper, is here.

I'm not a big fan of hedge fund regulation, but the various ideas being floated in Connecticut don't seem all that terrible.

One would require hedge funds to disclose their investments from pension funds. The second, more sweeping bill would beef up disclosure and create rules to "eliminate conflicts of interest between investors and fund managers," says the Times. Interestingly, there seems to be bipartisan support for some kind of regulation.

It's hard to think of any convincing argument against such fairly mild and cosmetic regulations, but I am sure the hedge fund industry will come up with some. (Arguments, that is. Not necessarily convincing ones.)

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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