Although hedge funds only recently began to lobby Congress and other Washington powerhouses to encourage them to back off on regulation, their efforts already appear to be making big strides, the International Herald Tribune reports.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Congress all appear to believe that hedge funds don’t require any additional regulation.
“They’ve been extraordinarily effective in lobbying, which is pretty amazing given Long-Term Capital Management and the number of other cases involving problems with hedge funds," said David Tittsworth, head of the
But, so far, hedge funds haven’t spent much on Capitol Hill. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 15 hedge funds spent a mere $7.7 million lobbying Congress between 1998 and 2006.
As long as regulators remain hands-off on any additional requirements for hedge funds, their lobbying dollars will remain scant, many believe.
“The small proportion of money they are spending is related to the fact that they are not heavily regulated,” said Tim La Pira, a lobbying researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics. “Heavily regulated industries like banking or oil and gas spend an enormous amount of money because they have a history and legacy of being regulated.”
The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.
