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Black Edge

Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
May 02, 2017StarGladiator rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Somewhat of a tedious, boring read which focuses on a very small and select group associated with SAC Capital [Steven A. Cohen's crooked hedge fund]; basically about speculation - - or really rigged speculation and insider trading. The people are all crooked at all levels, whether their daily insider machinations, or their falsified school transcripts, or blood doping for the triathlon - - they are evidently crooked through and through, and do nothing, nor appear to have ever done anything, of a productive nature or value. As that Keynesian economist [John Maynard Keynes] stated later in his life, speculation is a useless and counterproductive activity - - not of any worth in any economy, except to benefit the crooks! Perhaps the only two real-life characters of any moderate interest were FBI agent, Kang, and the attorney, Bowe. [Agent Kang also figures in Anita Raghavan's book, The Billionaire's Apprentice - - - he is evidently one of three actual active and achieving agents in that outfit!] The author ends the book most cleverly, providing us with a portent of what's to come in the Trump Administration, but I was somewhat perplexed as the author covers the fall of another Indian-run hedge fund [I forget the name, think it was Medallion???] but nary a single mention of Rajat Gupta --- this was highly suspicious to this humble reader?!?!? [Gupta, the king of American jobs-offshoring, went to jail for a paltry year for providing insider information to the Medallion dude. Gupta also personifies the character of the types the Gates Foundation appoints to its Global Advisory Board.] Essentially, though, it wasn't about that global economic meltdown, just a small slice of market rigging through rigged hedge fund speculation. [The personally interesting component touched on in this book by the author was the POV of the healthcare hedge fund sector, which my own extensive research has shown is one of the primary cost drivers in healthcare, i.e., (1) private equity/leveraged buyouts across the healthcare sector; (2) hedge fund speculation across the healthcare sector {which the author briefly touches upon indirectly}; and, (3) the clause in congressional legislation forbidding negotiation of pharmaceutical/medicine prices.]