Hedge Fund Land Is the New Flyover Country

The Fed's aggressive rate cuts have so far failed to resurrect the credit markets; creeping protectionism and the prospect of capital gains and dividend tax increases have stocks in the doldrums. Real estate? Forget it. Risk arb is a shadow of its former self. Private equity is dead and loaning money to loser Korean companies is right out. Energy and commodities even seem to be flattening out. Bitter over our economic lot in life I fear that the hedge fund community, tens of thousands strong, will have to turn to guns, religion and racial bigotry to salve our tortured souls.