To be clear tax payers bailed out the banking industry and borrowers/homeowners, not hedge funds. (I’m not defending them just saying they weren’t the ones with their hands out (that time))
That’s not true. On the way up these funds take 20% cut on the profits. On the way down they give nothing back. It’s a one way function. So they indeed sqeeuzed public money (retail and pension funds).
Please explain how they were bailed out, which my comment was in reference to?
Sounds like you have a problem with their fee structure - but not sure where the connection with a bailout is.
Separately, you do realize that (generalizing) hedge funds typically charge fees annually and have high water marks, which mean if the fund declines in value they give back fees that have been accrued for that year, and that they don’t charge incentive fees again until they’ve recouped investor losses?
"Please explain how they were bailed out, which my comment was in reference to?"
Maybe they weren't directly bailed out but their counterparties got bailed which then saved them. For example, I bet if the AIG counterparties had had to accept a massive haircut (which they should have) then a lot of companies would have gotten in trouble. The whole mantra "creative destruction" got suspended when it reached the financial industry.
