Wall Street Fears Bear Stearns Is Tip of an Iceberg

"Returns for illiquid assets and funds that invest in them tend to have little variation from one month to the next. Paradoxically, it is this smoothness of returns that show how illiquid, and risky, a position might be."--And in that quote, referring to an academic study of leveraged, illiquid investments, the whole bogus argument of hedge funds "stabilizing" today's financial markets is dismantled. The near-term smoothness in fact implies long term systemic risk! We recommend reading the whole article.