SUNDRY: HEDGE FUNDS AND TOPLESS PHOTO-OPS

Predictably, the bloom is off the "oppress me, I'm a tea-bagger" rose but there's plenty of other stuff going on.

Miss California-USA-topless-model-traditional-marriage-defender will be (their word, not mine) a co-host on Fox and Friends. They're thinking outdoor show, windy venue. I will have control of the remote.

The administration is now going to bash/investigate/audit/regulate/enema, or some combination of the foregoing, hedge fund operators.

I don't completely understand what hedge funds actually DO, but I think they buy stuff and sell stuff. Sometimes they buy stuff in a way that they're actually selling it and sometimes they sell stuff in a way they're actually buying it, but they basically just buy stuff and sell stuff. They're sort of like pawn shops for securities and other risk paper (although they buy land, minerals and currency, too). Nearly as I know, they are not leading little, old ladies with blue hair to think they should invest in a hedge fund or that their life savings will be insured in a hedge fund.

My view of governmental functions is probably broader than some of my more conservative friends (although the performance of the Postal Service makes me wonder if our government is not in at least one too many functions.) but I think it's probably a good idea for the gov't to identify a NEED before it does stuff. What is the need to prod hedge funds?

They buy stuff. They sell stuff. They might make obscene amounts of money buying and selling their stuff. That's good. That makes them taxpayers. Most hedge fund guys are not even tea baggers. They just earn more and pay what they owe in taxes because obscene wealth is pretty much a neat thing to have. They buy houses, boats cars. In fact almost all of the main hedgies have a condo in NY and a house in either New Jersey or Connecticut They make jobs. Nearly as I know, they don't do anything illegal, save the odd market manipulation/insider trading that gets prosecuted about once a decade. Unlike salvage yards they don't create a safety hazard. Unlike pawn shops (and I happen to really, really like pawn shops) there has never been any allegation of a hedge fund cheating a person living below the poverty line.

Hedge Funds are as American as baseball, apple pie and Chrysler dealers --Oh, well, scratch that last one.

Have a nice weekend.