Hova Called the Crash

Jay-Z called the crash way back in the summer on his duo with Rhianna, Umbrella, and urged his audience to start saving… if only they listened then maybe they wouldn't have to rely on the government and banks to bail their asses out. Incidentally I should have listened to HOV as well and added some more sector shorts, but I'm just not a Rhianna fan.

No clouds in my stones
Let it rain, I hydroplane into fame
Coming down with the Dow Jones
When the clouds come we gone
We roc-a-fella
We fly higher than weather in G5's or better
You know me, in anticipation for precipitation
Stacks chips for the rainy day

Maybe now that's he no longer CEO of the Def Jam he can start a hedge fund... After all Jigga was a commodities trader before he ever became a rap superstar (and showed his FX smarts by flashin Euros in his video for Roc Boys - as the greenback was tumbling quicker than Fiddy's career).
The coke prices up and down like it's Wall Street homes,
But this is worse than the Dow Jones your brains are now blown.

There's more than one way to film a money shot.

Hedge Funds doing Hollywood? Old news. Hedge funds doing Hollywood (San Bernardino county anyways)? Now we're cooking with gas (but still less volatile gas than the one Brian Hunter was cooking with). Hope it's gonna be a hot summer for both of them.
Might expand this post after visiting the site at home...

clipped from www.dailybreeze.com Francis Koenig, a former hedge-fund manager in New York, moved to L.A. last year with one goal: directing traditional money to a nontraditional investment. That nontraditional investment is porn. His Beverly Hills-based company is called AdultVest, and he said it's the first and only one geared toward matching investors and successful entrepreneurs with growing adult-entertainment companies and adult entertainers looking to start up, expand, acquire or be acquired. "And they have absolutely no institutional financial participation, no venture funds, angle funds or private equity funds for this industry," he said. His first convention will be later this year in Hollywood, and he's looking for actors and actresses who want to fund a production or other venture to submit a proposal to his Web site, www.adultvest.com. The fundraising started last fall and Koenig said the money is coming in at a steady pace and there are some high-profile participants, though he declined to name names.

Doug Ellin: Working for Money is Immoral

Read the quick interview with Entourage creator Doug Ellin, whose next show will be about a couple guys running hedge funds and making money that "makes Vince look like a pauper." I though that given Ellin's expertly apt and guilt-free portrayal of the Hollywood entourage there would finally be a show about finance that didn't have the message of Wall Street, Boiler Room, et.al. - that money always corrupts and the people who make markets are the devil incarnate.

Perhaps I was wrong.

Ellin calls the Entourage boys who do nothing but sleep, drink and fuck "good guys who have each other’s back", and his homies who nonchalantly buy Bentleys make him laugh, while hedgies working their ass off and making billions sadden him. Is it because actors are idiots who couldn't be doing anything else, whereas Harvard-educated hedgies could be "trying to cure cancer"? Why aren't you shooting a documentary about fuckin' Darfur then, Ellin? Get off your hybrid high horse and kiss my wingtips. People who succeed do what they are most passionate about, and all the best traders and dealmakers, the ones who really have a gift for the game, would still be doing it for free. At their level "money is just a way to keep score," as Kravis said. Not to mention that Wall Street players give a whole lot more of their wealth away than your average Hollywood celeb trying to campaign for the it cause of the day because somehow being able to act [i.e. big tits or a nice jaw line] makes one naturally adept at understanding the intricacies of world politics.

Ellin then has the gall to say that people go to finance to hit a home run and take a shortcut to wealth. This is what worries me the most as it sets up the show to be completely unrealistic. As we all know there is no easy money in finance. You earn every penny you make, sometimes you just have a bit of tailwind. True, there are a very few brilliant traders out there who make a killing early on an keep on doing it, but even 80% of them spent years studying the trade before they got a chance to hit one out of the park. And I assure you - none of them could have cured cancer even if they tried.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Q: Why do you find the subject of money so interesting? Sadly, right now, that’s the world people are aspiring to. You have Harvard-educated medical doctors who would rather work at an investment bank than try to cure cancer. Q: The desire to make money is nothing new. No, but now people are looking for the home runs constantly. That’s the difference. People are seeing shortcuts and easy routes. Q: Is [Entourage] intended as a sendup of Hollywood excess? No. I consider the show 100 percent realistic. I have friends who wake up in the morning and want a Bentley and they go get it. I find it funny. I look at them [the Entourage cast] as good guys who have each other’s back and just want to take care of each other. They watch out for each other like family. Q: How much do you earn? I’m not going to tell you. Q: About $3 million a year? Yeah, you can put it in that neighborhood.