While most hedge funds traditionally have an on-shore and an off-shore investment vehicle, the bulk of investable capital is allocated to accounts domiciled in the Caymans, Bahamas, Isle of Man, or some other tax “friendly” country, as LPs are never too crazy about that little snag known as taxes, and offshoring provides some nice and useful alternatives to said snag. Distressed hedge funds, those that acquire either secured or unsecured debt with the hope of equitization, are no exception. Yet equitization by essentially foreign vehicles is starting to get some dirty looks by regulators, which limit “foreign” equity investments in traditionally American companies and sectors. Some developments in the upcoming restructurings of media companies may put a new wrinkle on what is promptly becoming the most prevalent and profitable means for hedge funds to invest capital (not by necessity but for the simple reason that if a sector is not too big to fail, it is likely failing massively). The case of Citadel Broadcasting, which Zero Hedge discussed recently as commentary highlighting the lunacy of the current investment climate, is just such an example. Read the rest of this entry »
And so the guns come out blazing. The Clearing House Association, another name for all the banks that were bailed out over the past year with the generous contributions from all of you, dear taxpayers, are now threatening with another instance of complete systemic collapse if Bloomberg’s lawsuit is allowed to proceed unchallenged, let alone if any of the “Audit The Fed” measures are actually implemented. Read the rest of this entry »
In These New Times 