With half the country supposedly in convulsions over the Arthur's Day stereotyping of the Irish as drunks
(or maybe it's just half of Twitter), an email has emerged from one the organisers of this week's HedgeCraic event that rather captures the
zeitgeist.
A sort of Glastonbury for filthy rich global hedge fund types, organised by the financial research outfit Albourne, HedgeCraic took place during the week in the Shelbourne and Ritz Carlton hotels.
Hundreds of delegates from the world's top hedge funds attended, and speakers included the Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Bob Geldof, the singer and poverty campaigner.
Hush-hush event
Simon Ruddick, Albourne's chief executive, hosted the hush-hush event. During the summer, he apparently contacted a pension fund in San Diego to invite it along and the email appears to have made it online.
It contains more boozy Irish wit.
“Can you be tempted by some binge thinking? The glass will be half full at HedgeCraic,” wrote Ruddick.
He goes on to list some of the event’s high-profile speakers, before adding: “Not even ‘rain’ will rain on this parade of talent.”
Dear, oh dear. He signs off as "Simon O'Ruddick".
A big hit
Irish stereotyping aside, the event appears to have been a hit. Speakers included Phillipp Hildebrand, the former Swiss Central banker who resigned last year after his wife profited from foreign exchange trading during the currency crisis. Hildebrand now works for Blackrock.
Other speakers were Alan Howard of Brevan Howard, one of the richest hedge fund managers in the world;
Bill Ackman of Pershin Square, another billionaire; and Bryce Markus, the Blue Mountain wunderkid who bought Lloyd Blankfein's Manhattan pad for $12 million at the age of 33.
Blankfein was Markus’s chief executive at Goldman Sachs – so it was a rather ballsy statement from the young buck to buy his old boss’s house. It must be God’s work.
Geldof got a rapturous reception from the hedgies in the Shelbourne on Tuesday when he accused politicians of treason for their actions during the financial crisis.
The crowd was apparently better behaved on Wednesday when Noonan addressed them at the Ritz.
