How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour: Why Hedge Funds Get Away with Siphoning Off America's Wealth

by Les Leopold

Overview

How hedge funds make money by taking it from the rest of us—and how you can join them!

Top hedge fund managers make more than Oprah, Rupert Murdoch, and A-Rod combined—but they aren't running news and entertainment empires or playing baseball for the New York Yankees. Aren't you curious about how these hedge fund dudes make so much doing who knows what? You may even wonder if you can get there, too. After all, this is America!

This book gives you the answers in a twelve-step guide to accumulating vast riches the way hedge fund managers do—by playing trillion-dollar poker with a marked deck. Through each easy step, you'll learn the sleight of hand and disregard for basic morality you'll need to move from making tens of dollars an hour to millions an hour! Along the way, you'll also question whether these hedge fund moguls make markets work better—as they and their apologists insist—or cause instability, siphon off capital, and destroy value without adding so much as a single widget to the economy.

• Takes a fascinating tour of the wild side of fantasy finance to explain just how hedge fund managers make so much money—and whether or not the million-an-hour crowd produces anything positive for society and the economy
• Teaches you hedge fund secrets that make it possible to pull down astounding sums in the space of minutes—from rigging your bets to milking millions in special tax breaks—if you're willing to bankrupt your morality for the cash
• Counters many of the most common arguments about why speculating in financial markets is somehow "worth more" than creating entertainment, electronics, or consumer goods that consumers want
• Written by Les Leopold, the popular AlterNet writer and author of The Looting of America

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118239247
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

LES LEOPOLD is the executive director of the Labor Institute and Public Health Institute in New York and one of the most popular writers for the progressive website AlterNet. He is also the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity—and What We Can Do about It.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Step 1 Reach for the Stars—and Beyond 5

Step 2 Take, Don’t Make 25

Step 3 Rip Off Entire Countries Because That’s Where the Money Is 48

Step 4 Use Other People’s Money 62

Step 5 Create Something You Can Pretend Is Low Risk and High Return 78

Step 6 Rig Your Bets 97

Step 7 Don’t Say Anything Remotely Truthful 113

Step 8 Have the Right People Whispering in Your Ear 136

Step 9 Bet on the Race after You Know Who Wins 159

Step 10 Milk Millions in Special Tax Breaks 183

Step 11 Claim That Limits on Speculation Will Kill Jobs 204

Step 12 Distract the Dissenters 221

Conclusion 237

Acknowledgments 241

References 243

Index 251

Editorial Reviews

As the average American struggles to keep up with the costs of basic necessities, top hedge fund managers earn 20,000 times more per year than the average pediatrician. Leopold (The Looting of America) is fired up about this gross inequality. While some readers may find his impassioned claims sensational, he meticulously cites reputable sources and fuels the reader’s fire at the same time. He cites annual and hourly income for the mega-rich such as Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, and Elton John, whose fortunes pale in comparison to top hedge-fund managers, some of whom earn millions of dollars per hour. Leopold offers a sardonic list of dos and don’ts for wannabe hedge fund managers such as “Don’t worry if wealth gushes to the top. That’s just more money for your casinos.” Despite the hoopla, Leopold offers insight into the barely regulated realm that controls much of the country’s wealth, describing such methods as jumping ahead of average investors’ trades to buy securities before average investors do, and then sell to these same investors at a higher price. Unfortunately, Leopold doesn’t provide many suggestions on how the system can be changed to create a more balanced playing field. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Les Leopold’s latest masterpiece . . . is necessary, alarming and really funny. His talent for deconstructing complex financial terms and topics constitutes a public service. What he reveals in How to Make a Million Dollars an Hour, in a sardonic and appropriately irreverent tone, is something more ominous.” —Nomi Prins, Truthdig.com

From the Publisher