Vox - Hedge fund mania https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2014-05-06T18:39:39-04:00http://www.vox.com/rss/stream/54528192014-05-06T18:39:39-04:002014-05-06T18:39:39-04:004 hedge funders earned $10.4 billion
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ea_o8BIZSN8ARHMR3viK8BEXb4o=/0x32:776x614/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828309/vox_placeholder.9.0.jpg" />
</figure>
<p>Here's a great point a reader flagged for me about <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/5/6/5687788/last-year-25-hedge-fund-managers-earned-more-than-double-every">the top 25 hedge fund managers</a>. If you ignore the bottom 22 and just focus on the top three, it turns out that David Tepper, John Paulson, and Steven Cohen earned a combined $8.2 billion last year.</p>
<p>By contrast the BLS <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oes/CURRENT/oes252012.htm%20">reports</a> that there were 157,800 kindergarten teachers earning an average of $52,840 per year. That comes out to about $8.34 billion. That's a bit more. Then throw in the #4 hedgie and it looks like James Simons made $2.2 billion. In other words the earnings of just four guys absolutely dwarf the combined salaries of all 157,800 kindergarten teachers.</p>
https://www.vox.com/2014/5/6/5688794/these-four-hedge-fund-guys-out-earned-every-kindergarten-teacher-inMatthew Yglesias2014-05-06T15:00:14-04:002014-05-06T15:00:14-04:00In 2013, 25 hedge fund managers earned $21.1bn
<figure>
<img alt="This guy made $3.5 billion last year" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XEbHsHVUQX779N2B65NHCYzh2sM=/0x0:2039x1529/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/32623101/459167425.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>This guy made $3.5 billion last year | Getty Images</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alpha magazine is out with its annual "rich list" detailing the successes of the highest earning hedge fund managers in America. The news once again is that <a href="http://www.institutionalinvestorsalpha.com/Article/3337321/The-Rich-List-The-Highest-Earning-Hedge-Fund-Managers-of-the-Past-Year.html">it's good to be a successful hedge fund manager</a>: the top 25 earned a collective $21.1 billion this year.</p>
<p>Even within that group there's considerable inequality. The top earner, David Tepper, took home $3.5 billion which is about five times as much as either of the two men tied for the tenth slot.</p>
<p>How does that look in context? Well, it's about 0.13 percent of total national income for 2013 being earned by something like 0.00000008 percent of the American population. Another way of looking at it is that this is <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/5/6/5686918/teachers-get-an-appreciation-week-lawyers-take-home-70000-more-per">about 2.5 times the income of every kindergarten teacher in the country combined</a>.</p>
https://www.vox.com/2014/5/6/5687788/last-year-25-hedge-fund-managers-earned-more-than-double-everyMatthew Yglesias