Who Is Michael Lewis Mocking In His Hedge Fund Letter Satire?

A lot of hedge fund managers—including, most recently, Third Point’s Dan Loeb— have taken to criticizing the Obama administration in recent investor letters. Today Michael Lewis does a splendid job mocking these outbursts with satire.

lewis_michael_200.jpg
Getty Images

"My crisis struck one morning early this year, as I stared at my Bloomberg screens. Nothing had happened and that was the scary thing.

For no reason in particular I was overcome by this eerie conviction that markets would never again be free. They’d become traps, run by politicians and bureaucrats, designed to ensnare the superior man.

What had happened, in a word, was socialism."

Courtney Comstock at Clusterstock thinks that this is directly aimed at Bridgewater's founder Ray Dalio because he "writes freely, cocksure, and off-beat like this (and he likes animal references, too)."

We’re not so sure. Dan Loeb likes animals references as well. Cliff Assness’s letter might also fit the bill.

But what do you think? Who was Lewis mocking? Or was he just taking aim at newly political hedge funders in general?