Porsche bid on both Tiger tank projects, but the complicated nature of his electric drive mechanism meant he lost.

His first project became the Ferdinand, commonly called the Elephant Tank. First used in 1943 at the Battle of Kursk

His Tiger II project resulted in the misnamed King Tiger with a Porsche Turret. The turrent is actually a Krup turrent and would have been used on either the Porsche or Henschel bodies. The suspension system Porsche designed was used on later JadgTiger vehicles. Note, Porsche did not design the turret to which his name is often applied.

Let's hear it for Porsche! Hedge funds were probably the biggest contributor to the current financial crisis. For years they added oil to an already overheated fire, driving stock prices up way beyond the true value of the corporation who issued the stocks. In addition they caused the collapse of many corporations that had been providing work for millions. It was easy. Get a controlling interest in the company, vote for excessively high dividends which the company often could pay only by borrowing money. After the company was bled dry they sold it off in pieces, often to foreign investors who only wanted to get a rival out of the way. Not too long ago, the Frankfurter Börse wanted to buy the London Exchange. Two hedge funds who held a controlling interest in Frankfurter stopped the deal and instead voted to distribute the accumulated capital as dividend. Looks like a deliberate attempt to sabotage an action some people don't like.

Treats them right what Porsche did to them.

I'm in agreement with you on that. It sounds like exactly what is needed to provide a force that slightly discourages (but still allows) trading for the sake of trading (gambling) versus the buy and hold strategy that long term investors are always told is the way to go. What we have now leans towards casino night that provides ridiculous rewards to a few (like hedge funds). What we need is an investment environment that rewards long term investors who support successful companies with long term plans.

I couldn't care less about smart people who discover ways to game the system to syphon off cash. Some people claim they are essential to an efficient market by making the flow of capital more agile.

I say bullshit.

There is no way that any company with meaningful plans requires a market that supports traders who are able to make trades in milliseconds to respond to some fluctuation in price. There is no way their company could even make any decisions in response to this hyperactive trading. The only reason such hyperagile trading is needed is so some day trader can make easy money. Nice for him, but not the least bit essential or helpful to the longterm economic health of this country.

I say tax the shit out of them.

Hedge funds are a relic of times when we couldn't make transactions at the speed of light. The faster they are gone the better.

Further to the ubiquitousness of Ferdinand Porsche: he also designed the Auto Union racing cars of the 30's. Auto Union eventually became Audi.

How many hedge funds understand the meaning of that word?

Corporate taxes are the return on investment taxpayers should get for paying for all the infrastructure required to make and sustain wealth. You know, roads, courts, education. So if hedge funds pay a fair share of taxes, I don't see the problem with the final quote.

First, does anyone find it a little outrageous that banks and hedge funds are allowed to short-sell all sorts of companies EXCEPT for financial company stocks. That's right, Morgan Stanley, Merrill, Goldman were all caught in this short trap, short selling Volkwagen stock -- but they have demended that they be protected from exactly the game they were playing.

Second, as far as the hedgies go, there are no tactics that they have not played to make money out of short selling, for example spreading rumours about companies to cause a stock drop. For them to complain about chicanery is a little rich.

Third, public company boards, especially in the UK, have come under pressure from Hedge funds to act in ways that make stock more volatile in the short term, increasing the hedgies opportunities to make profits.

I am far from sure that this is a bad thing -- hedge funds losing their shirts because they were mouse-trapped -- it may be a good thing if it creates a higher level of risk for their business.

And in any event, the hedge funds cannot ask for regulations without being more regulated and transparent themselves.

How perfect is the hedge fund scam??? There should be worse epithets than "locusts" for this ilk and "industry".

For every seller there is a buyer and vice versa. Clearly this is a win for other shareholders for Volkswagen. Also, when the hedge funds dump shares in other companies, someone gets to buy them cheap.

When rich, lying scumbags open their mouths, lies emerge. This whole summer/fall has been one Ric Romero moment after another.

Isn't the whole point of hedge funds is that they're largely unregulated and thus able to be much higher risk?

Their whinging is a prime example of "Privitization of profit, socialization of risk" that's just a rotten garbage smell away from "crony capitalism" as being one of the worst economies you can have.

At least if I have warlords fighting over economic assets, its obvious how fucked up and dangerous that is.

We really have gone through the looking glass if that's the case. And if so, let's begin with the hedge funds.

...is what were Hedge funds doing taking speculative short positions with other peoples money in the first place? They got what they had comming. I'd very much like to see the same thing happen to every stock speculator in ever market everywhere. And then a tax levied on every stock and security transaction world wide to prevent the kind of legalized gambling that led to this situation in the first place.