From the Sunday Times:
A source who was present at a dinner attended by hedge-fund managers a week ago revealed: “They were all supporters of Truss and every one of them was shorting the pound.” Several made small fortunes on Friday betting against the currency.
It’s gone midnight at 5 Sigma Rise, an exclusive Mayfair club. Waiters are clearing the table of ortolan detritus as the conversation turns to politics.
“Such a relief to have our useful idiot in charge,” a stereotypical hedge fund manager says while inhaling brandy fumes from beneath a napkin. “I intend to make millions of thousands of pounds by shorting all of the pounds.”
“I too am shorting all of the pounds,” says an even more stereotypical hedge fund manager. “I’m already shorting all of the gilts. Kwasi Kwarteng once worked for me and I’m not saying he still does but I’m up 145 per cent lol.”
Everyone round the table laughs and applauds, which drowns out whatever the stereotypical hedge fund manager is mumbling about standard deviations.
“In future I’ll be giving even more to the Conservative Party,” a third stereotypical hedge fund manager says between mouthfuls of swan. “Poisoning an incumbent government with zombie Reaganomics has been so much more cost-effective than a TS Lombard subscription.”
“Nobody tell the Sunday Times, but isn’t it great being the masters of a godless universe,” says the first manager to loud agreement. “Our power over venal and vacuous public officials means all our bets are winners and new clients can be sure we will always beat a market we have contrived to crash.”
Everyone round the table is now mumbling about standard deviations.
Elsewhere on Monday . . .
— Hedge funds piled on bullish pound bets just before big crash (Bloomberg £)
— What’s that pitter patter? Mutinous Tory donors are returning to the fold (Sunday Times)
— You’re not good at this (Reformed Broker)
— The $665bn wage discrepancy (Apricitas Economics)
— The antitrust shooting war has started (BIG by Matt Stoller)
— 4,000 years of failed price controls (AIER)
— A Ponzi scheme by any other name: the bursting of China’s property bubble (Guardian)
— RNS watch: Jope’s retiring from Unilever; a bid for Pendragon; Babcock’s in-line; GSK confirms it’s pinched Burberry’s CFO; and MusicMagpie warns yet again
— The disappearing art of maintenance (Noema)
— Inside the world’s most top-secret museum (BBC)
— Was Rudy Giuliani always so awful? (New Yorker)
— A history of ARM, part 1 (ArsTechnica)
Read More: Further reading