Althouse: "It was a hedge fund portfolio pitched by Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky, as an opportunity to bet on a Greek economic revival."

May 11, 2016

"It was a hedge fund portfolio pitched by Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky, as an opportunity to bet on a Greek economic revival."

"Now, two years later, the Greece-focused fund is shutting down, after losing nearly 90 percent of its value...."

47 comments:

Big Mike said...: One doesn't invest with Marc Mezvinsky to make money. One invests to get entrée to the Clintons.; 5/11/16, 9:45 AM
YoungHegelian said...: Grifters gotta grift.; 5/11/16, 9:51 AM
Michael K said...: The Haiti investments are doing better. Not for the Haitians, of course.; 5/11/16, 9:52 AM
Phil 314 said...: Creative destruction?

Economic Darwinism?

Or to quote Otter "You f**ked up, you trusted us1"; 5/11/16, 9:56 AM
Henry said...: The last sentence is total concern trolling:

The one silver lining for the fund’s investors from all of this is that they will have a somewhat larger tax loss on investments to claim next year.; 5/11/16, 9:56 AM
Rob said...: According to the article, "The hedge fund firm is named after a bridge in Central Park." Better it should have been named after a bridge to Brooklyn. Step right up, suckahs!; 5/11/16, 9:59 AM
Eric said...: I love that last sentence.; 5/11/16, 10:01 AM
Known Unknown said...: The only Greek revivals I see are in housing developments nearby.; 5/11/16, 10:05 AM
Danno said...: Now that Chelsea and Marc are dead broke, Marc can also go to work for the Clinton money laundering enterprise.; 5/11/16, 10:07 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: If it was pitched as betting on x, and x fails to happen, shouldn't you expect to lose your money? Isn't that the way bets work?

Now it certainly could be true that it was marketed as if a Greek economic revival was a sure thing, or as if the downside was limited, or that an investment would provide access to opportunities to consult with future world leaders regarding policy proposals you might have. But losing money on a bet should be no surprise.; 5/11/16, 10:08 AM
David Begley said...: He should have shorted biotech after Hillary attacked it.

But we will be Greece if Hillsry wins.; 5/11/16, 10:09 AM
Rob said...: Not to worry, Danno, there's no evidence that Mezvinsky lost any money himself in the Greek fund. On the contrary, his fund collected fees from investors.; 5/11/16, 10:09 AM
khesanh0802 said...: Bet you Mark and his partners didn't lose a penny.

Yes, the last sentence is a doozy; we all invest to get tax losses. Was this written by the society writer? Hillary doesn't need to shut Wall Street down she just needs to loan out Mark and it will be all over.; 5/11/16, 10:09 AM
Big Mike said...: @Danno, the young Mezvinsky couple are anything but broke. He made money on the deal, never fear.; 5/11/16, 10:11 AM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: "...an opportunity to bet on a Greek economic revival."

Great punch line.; 5/11/16, 10:15 AM
Jay Vogt said...: I'll admit it, I'm kind of stumped by the spectacular and secular underperformance of hedge funds.

Having spent a good number of years professionally assessing them, I thought that there would be more success than there has been. Not that I expected eye popping outperformance (alpha - in the trade) by most of the funds, I did however think that given some of the powerful advantages that they enjoy a statistically significant number of them would deliver superior investment results. The advantages that they enjoy include: multi-quarter lockups, opacity, lack of style box restraint, ability to short, ability to leverage, larger entry thresholds, diminished internal liquidity requirements and a slightly less burdensome regulatory scheme.

You'd think with that with that they could offer some additional return. But it turns out, not really.

When I first started working with them, someone told me that to understand hedge funds, I should not think of them so much as investment platforms, but as a pricing schemes. And, while that insight was enormously helpful, I thought at the time it was a bit too cynical. Turns out I was wrong.

There are a few out there that are really talented -but just a very few. It's nearly impossible to identify them in real time.; 5/11/16, 10:21 AM
RichardJohnson said...: Rather comical.

I am reminded that I find a great difference between Americans of Greek descent and contemporary Greece. The only Americans of Greek descent I know are either professionals or entrepreneurs. My home area had a lot of Greek-owned pizza joints. Seems to me that the Greeks with anything on the ball emigrated to America.; 5/11/16, 10:28 AM
David said...: Daughter of incompetent marries rich incompetent. No surprise.; 5/11/16, 10:29 AM
Original Mike said...: Betting on Greece to get its economic house in order. What could possibly go wrong?

Now if there were a way to short a Greek economic revival, that would be worth looking into.; 5/11/16, 10:33 AM
William said...: You would think that what with his mother in law being Secretary of State he would get some valuable tips about German loan extensions or whatever and that he would be able to leverage those tips. Didn't happen. Hillary, the incorruptible, was unwilling to pass on inside information for her family's immediate profit. That's the only possible explanation. This is an inspiring story that reflects well on the probity of Clinon's extended family.......If you believe that, I've got some Greek revival bonds that I'd like to sell you.; 5/11/16, 10:42 AM
Etienne said...: His dad was the real criminal. Well, besides his in-laws...

Like father - like son.; 5/11/16, 10:44 AM
Captain Drano said...: Wonder if he's involved with Clinton's "Infrastructure Banks" idea: https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factsheets/2015/11/30/clinton-infrastructure-plan-builds-tomorrows-economy-today/. Why it solves everything from rebuilding to saving the hot pollo $500.00 annually on energy!

I started looking into it when London's new mayor said he was endorsing Clinton, and warned Trump that if he keeps up the talk of banning Muslims, it's going to piss off extreme Muslims and cause them to go all Jhiadi on us. (Hmmm. Maybe he has inside info.)

Anyhow, not that I give a fuck what this small town mayor in another country thinks, but there was a line in the article that caught my eye--he said he would like to visit the U.S. because he was interested in what DeBlasio was doing re housing in NYC, and what Emmanuel was doing in Chicago with the "Infrastructure Bank." Well usually anything that's money+Chicago=corruption, so I started looking into it. Ugh. There's an intl "Infrastructure Bank" and several individual country ones, as well as domestic state and local ones. Domestically, especially in Chicago, it's looks like it's just more $ thrown at cronies. And wasn't the recovery act, that cost 100's of billions, of which Chicago received handsome sums, supposed to repair and alleviate much of what the Chicago I-Bank is proposing to solve?

http://cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ocfo/publication/attachments/Infrastructure%20Bank.pdf

http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-chicago-infrastructure-trust-build-up.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/10/sadiq-khan-warns-donald-trumps-ignorant-view-of-islam-could-make/; 5/11/16, 10:49 AM
rhhardin said...: It's okay if the opportunity for gain was 10 to 1 or better.; 5/11/16, 10:49 AM
Will said...: Maybe he could double down by investing in some Greek Cattle Futures. Hillary could show him how it's done!; 5/11/16, 10:53 AM
gspencer said...: Chelsea's theme song,

"Well, I was born a gold-grifters' daughter"

Even Loretta Lynn, a genuine, all-country American, would agree with that lyric change.; 5/11/16, 10:57 AM
Virgil Hilts said...: As Coupe suggested, it sounds like the acorn did not fall very far from the tree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Mezvinsky; 5/11/16, 11:03 AM
Bill Peschel said...: RichardJohnson

One enterprising Greek fellow moved to Estonia. In Greece, he had started a florist business. He delivered flowers to businesses, but made the mistake of giving them credit. They accepted the flowers, but refused to pay, so he said screw that and got out of there.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/skype-and-sensibility-estonia-lives-the-european-dream-a-790293.html

As for this Greek fund, a 90 percent decline smells of money laundering.; 5/11/16, 11:18 AM
Jason said...: Step 1: Go long on Greek assets betting on a strong economic recovery. So strong that you still make your capital hurdle rate even after the hedge fund management takes out its 2 and 20.

Step 2. Donate generously to the Clinton Foundation and to specific friends of Clintons.

Step 3: Leverage your contacts in Washington, including Congress, the Department of State and the Department of Commerce as well as your buddies at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to open the credit spigot back up so that you can profit from fake dollars flooding Greece and shift the losses to bank depositors, or have Bill and Hillary do it for you.

Step 4: ???

Step 5: PROFIT!!!; 5/11/16, 11:40 AM
buwaya said...: ".an opportunity to bet on a Greek economic revival"

Eventually, there will be.
The only question is when.; 5/11/16, 12:08 PM
Dan Hossley said...: Marc Mezvinksy, married to Chelsea Clinton and betting on Greece. Looks like he's good a picking failures.; 5/11/16, 12:08 PM
Brando said...: Bad enough that the Clintons and Mezvinskys are only capable of influence trading and holding sinecures. But now they have to go and try to play at finance?

This gang must be kept out of power.; 5/11/16, 12:11 PM
Michael K said...: "Seems to me that the Greeks with anything on the ball emigrated to America."

If you visit Ireland looking for "roots" expect the Irish to be not too friendly because they have the same thought. As my Irish friend told me years ago, "They know the cream left."; 5/11/16, 12:11 PM
buwaya said...: "As for this Greek fund, a 90 percent decline smells of money laundering."

It does to me too.; 5/11/16, 12:12 PM
Sam L. said...: Why do I think Mark and a few friends likely made money on this?; 5/11/16, 12:21 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Quick, cattle future trades to the rescue!; 5/11/16, 12:26 PM
exhelodrvr1 said...: It would be interesting to see a list of who invested in this fund.; 5/11/16, 12:32 PM
JAORE said...: $25 million. WOW. Hillary would have to make 100 speeches to get that kind of dough.

I'm sure her SIL was who she was referring to when she discusses the greed on Wall Street.; 5/11/16, 12:34 PM
madAsHell said...: Mezvinsky, Federal Bureau of Prisons # 55040-066, was released in April 2008. He remained on federal probation until 2011, and as of 2010 still owed $9.4 million in restitution to his victims.

Wow!! His Dad is a Nigerian prince!!....or a Spanish prisoner. You pick.; 5/11/16, 12:52 PM
mikee said...: So the fund got the money. The money was used to buy Greek stuff. And then the value of the Greek stuff dropped 90%. So under law the firm was closed by the feds.

Who keeps the remaining 10% of the $25,000,000? That is, the $2,500,000 remaining?; 5/11/16, 1:09 PM
n.n said...: I wonder if there were similar investments in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, etc. It's probably not a coincidence that Democrat interests led the financial collapse.; 5/11/16, 1:16 PM
F said...: They're so damn transparent! How can anyone believe anything they're pitching any longer?; 5/11/16, 1:20 PM
Kyzer SoSay said...: Couldn't have happened to a more deserving group of crooks.; 5/11/16, 1:35 PM
Curious George said...: "mikee said...
So the fund got the money. The money was used to buy Greek stuff. And then the value of the Greek stuff dropped 90%. So under law the firm was closed by the feds.

Who keeps the remaining 10% of the $25,000,000? That is, the $2,500,000 remaining?"

I believe it's divided among the investors based on percentage of investment.; 5/11/16, 2:02 PM
Abdul Abulbul Amir said...: Investing in socialism seldom pays.; 5/11/16, 2:54 PM
jr565 said...: Never bet On Greek.; 5/11/16, 5:11 PM
retail lawyer said...: Its not that easy being Wall Street capitalist fat cat, is it? But at least his heart is in the right place. He would be if he could.
What I don't understand about this story is that he was privy to best inside knowledge, what with the in-laws being so connected to those who actually understands the Greece problem, and those who will decide how to handle it. Hillary must have just laid it all out for him. I don't understand where he went wrong.; 5/11/16, 6:15 PM
Paul said...: So he bet on socalist.... and we all know socalism works until they run out of other people's money. Well they just ran out of Marc's.

Hahahahaha.... guess he needs to dip into the Hillary, I mean Clinton, Foundation dough.; 5/11/16, 9:50 PM