From Global Economic Intersection:
The news was greeted with shock by some, while others wondered what took so long. In perhaps the first of many shoes to drop on the hedge fund industry, the largest U.S. pension fund, CalPERS (California Public Retirement System) announced it will sell all of its hedge fund investments within 12 months. Media stories on this announcement were quick to cite lagging performance of these funds over the past year, but it appears CalPERS was more concerned with the level of fees and lack of "transparency"...that is, they did not know what the heck was going on inside of many of the funds.
Read the rest here:
http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog3.php/2014/10/06/the-elephant-leaves-the-room
The hedge fund industry is perhaps the greatest racket in a sector that is practically all rackets. The average top 25 hedge fund managers averaged nearly a billion dollars last year, for basically being lucky (e.g. After John Paulson made a killing betting on the housing market being killed in 2008, he underperformed for the next 2 years).
An alternative investment would be a Public Bank, a true counter-cyclical investment, free of confiscatory bail-ins (in Cyprus style), a support for the community instead of a drain upon it, and a true job-creator not a money sucker. Even if the nominal returns are slightly less - and that may not even be true over time - the overall returns to the community are well above the divesting alternative of exporting tax dollars to hedge funds to invest "everywhere but home." Plus, those communities that invest in a Public Bank can be assured of the continued success of their community banks; e.g. North Dakota, the only state with a Public Bank, has by far the highest bank per capita ratio in the country, and the highest community bank ratio too. And it is small, community banks that loan to small, community businesses, which account for over 95% of the jobs in the country. See here: http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Occupy-For-Public-Banking-by-Scott-Baker-Banking_Banking-Crime_Banking-Crisis_Banking-Fraud-140410-300.html
Investing in a Public Bank doesn't just make sense, it makes cents.
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