Quote :

"Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding. Instead, I am writing to say goodbye. Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, "What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it." I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America. There are far too many people for me to sincerely thank for my success. However, I do not want to sound like a Hollywood actor accepting an award. The money was reward enough. Furthermore, the endless list those deserving thanks know who they are. I will no longer manage money for other people or institutions. I have enough of my own wealth to manage. Some people, who think they have arrived at a reasonable estimate of my net worth, might be surprised that I would call it quits with such a small war chest. That is fine; I am content with my rewards. Moreover, I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck. Appointments back to back, booked solid for the next three months, they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life. So this is it. With all due respect, I am dropping out. Please do not expect any type of reply to emails or voicemails within normal time frames or at all. Andy Springer and his company will be handling the dissolution of the fund. And don't worry about my employees, they were always employed by Mr. Springer's company and only one (who has been well-rewarded) will lose his job. I have no interest in any deals in which anyone would like me to participate. I truly do not have a strong opinion about any market right now, other than to say that things will continue to get worse for some time, probably years. I am content sitting on the sidelines and waiting. After all, sitting and waiting is how we made money from the subprime debacle. I now have time to repair my health, which was destroyed by the stress I layered onto myself over the past two years, as well as my entire life -- where I had to compete for spaces in universities and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management -- with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not. May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established. On the issue of the U.S. Government, I would like to make a modest proposal. First, I point out the obvious flaws, whereby legislation was repeatedly brought forth to Congress over the past eight years, which would have reigned in the predatory lending practices of now mostly defunct institutions. These institutions regularly filled the coffers of both parties in return for voting down all of this legislation designed to protect the common citizen. This is an outrage, yet no one seems to know or care about it. Since Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith passed, I would argue that there has been a dearth of worthy philosophers in this country, at least ones focused on improving government. Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt. George Soros, a man of staggering wealth, has stated that he would like to be remembered as a philosopher. My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man's interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft's near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken. Lastly, while I still have an audience, I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won't see it included in BP's, "Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions," television commercials, nor is it mentioned in ADM's similar commercials. But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term. The original American flag was made of hemp fiber and our Constitution was printed on paper made of hemp. It was used as recently as World War II by the U.S. Government, and then promptly made illegal after the war was won. At a time when rhetoric is flying about becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, why is it illegal to grow this plant in this country? Ah, the female. The evil female plant -- marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western). You would not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week. Please people, let's stop the rhetoric and start thinking about how we can truly become self-sufficient. With that I say good-bye and good luck. All the best, - Andrew Lahde"

EPIC!1

10/23/2008 5:45:26 PM

This guy is my new hero.

[Edited on October 23, 2008 at 5:46 PM. Reason : ]

10/23/2008 5:46:03 PM

i LOL'd when i read this last week

10/23/2008 5:47:26 PM

ya it's slightly [old]

someone randomly IMed it to me today and I figured I'd repost it here in case anyone had missed the awesomeness

10/23/2008 5:48:55 PM

Quote :

"Ah, the female. The evil female plant -- marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous."

10/23/2008 5:51:07 PM

who?

10/23/2008 5:51:14 PM

I thought it was a suicide letter. still seems cool though.

10/23/2008 5:51:34 PM

Andrew Lahde (b. 1970 or 1971) was a California-based hedge fund manager who in 2007 earned some fame for achieving return rates in the vicinity of 1000% with his Lahde Capital, based in Santa Monica, California. The fund speculated on increases of U.S. subprime mortgage defaults.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lahde

10/23/2008 5:53:11 PM

Quote :

"Capitalism worked for two hundred years, but times change, and systems become corrupt."

Our system of economics and gov't is NOT capitalism. You'd think this guy would know that

10/23/2008 6:57:53 PM

what is it?

10/23/2008 6:58:21 PM

How would you characterize it?

10/23/2008 6:58:31 PM

copy cat

10/23/2008 6:59:16 PM

pssh 10 seconds

10/23/2008 7:00:27 PM

Democracy is not capitalism.

10/23/2008 7:08:56 PM

Would you mean "republican capitalism"? I think it's a more accurate description of our government and economy. However, you may notice that the capitalistic influences seem to overwhelm the democratic/republican (in the traditional, direct vs indirect representation meanings of democratic and republican) influences in most cases. It's sort of like an anarcho-capitalistic system with a vestigial, or perhaps even cancerous republic leeching off of it.

[Edited on October 23, 2008 at 7:17 PM. Reason : revision 1]

10/23/2008 7:14:55 PM

the free market will always correct itself given enough time

problem is, we didn't feel like we had enough time to allow it to do so.

10/23/2008 7:19:12 PM

you just liked this because he said make weed legal and pointed out that stupid people can graduate from college.

10/23/2008 7:20:26 PM

Andrew Ladd?

10/23/2008 7:27:28 PM

Quote :

"This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft's near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken."

Quote :

"But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa."

wow, a level of intellect approaching the bottom feeders on digg. nice.

10/23/2008 7:28:41 PM

quit trying to confuse me with all your science

10/23/2008 7:29:54 PM

Quote :

"For example, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) forbids hospitals from denying any patient for emergency care. The economic reality is that this leads to hospitals suffering economic losses by being forced to treat patients, regardless of if they can pay for the care, which ultimately leads to the closing of hospitals. Furthermore, insurance mandates, such as benefit mandates, rating mandates and bans on out-of-state insurance, restrict competition and lead to higher insurance premiums."

There are areas in all corners of the market that the government is continuing to impose new regulations on. Any market regulations whatsoever do not constitute a true capitalistic system.

10/23/2008 7:35:15 PM

words

tl'dr

...

10/23/2008 7:35:57 PM

i'll tell ya what.

lets argue semantics all night so we can show our superior inteligence to everyone

10/23/2008 7:36:51 PM

Quote :

"you just liked this because he said make weed legal and pointed out that stupid people can graduate from college."

I liked pretty much every point he made, which is why I reposted it.

10/23/2008 7:39:12 PM

who is andrew lahde?

10/23/2008 7:48:13 PM

dude there's a description of him on like the 13th post

10/23/2008 7:48:42 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lahde

10/23/2008 7:49:10 PM

10/23/2008 7:49:44 PM

Quote :

"Andrew Lahde (b. 1970 or 1971) was a California-based hedge fund manager who in 2007 earned some fame for achieving return rates in the vicinity of 1000% with his Lahde Capital, based in Santa Monica, California. The fund speculated on increases of U.S. subprime mortgage defaults."

sounds like he did something everyone else could have seen coming

10/23/2008 7:51:07 PM

top two things i hate hearing people whine about:

1) gas prices
2) rich parents

good for this guy though.

10/23/2008 8:40:11 PM

weird statement

"But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products"

I assume he's trying to say that petroleum products have also been used (not for cloth and food..) for 5000 years?

10/23/2008 8:47:06 PM

andrew ladd?

10/23/2008 11:54:13 PM

^^^^ well why didn't you orchestrate a hedge fund that made you rich in less than a year's time, then?

or anyone in the depressing majority of the investment community?

I'd wager because it wasn't so obvious until it *began to occur* and he saw this shit comin' for years, demonstrated it mathematically to people with money, was already there at the right time, and made phat fucking bank for being insightful.

* then again, apparently I only respect him because he smokes weed and dissed people who's parents paid for their education, according to spewfield

[Edited on October 24, 2008 at 12:02 AM. Reason : * ]

10/23/2008 11:55:53 PM

BTTT for awesomeness

10/24/2008 10:47:20 PM