Hedge Fund Has-Beens

Is the hedge fund bubble going to end with a bang or a whimper?

Count me in the second camp. In fact, it's already happening. Ever since the collapse of Long Term Capital Management in the fall of 1998, financial pundits have predicted another spectacular blow-up, precipitating another, and even bigger, global financial crisis.

And they're doing it again. The New York Times weighed in with a call for greater regulatory scrutiny of the industry. Slate.com's Matthew Gross even seized on the IPO of hedge fund manager Fortress(FIG Quote) to warn of "the coming hedge-fund apocalypse." Apocalypse, no less. ...