Should Paulson invite hedge funds to join the bailout?

No. The title is misleading. It´s not what you are thinking. I am not saying that Paulson should bail out hedge funds. I understand that that would offend you. I am actually saying the opposite. I am recommending that Secretary Paulson invite large hedge funds to coinvest with him in the $700bn package that is the largest bailout in history. Why? First because if he does get some hedge funds to coinvest with him when he buys bad loans the American taxpayer will realize that at least there are some other investors out there who are willing to buy those loans as well. That those $700bn are an investment and not an expenditure per se. That it may actually not be such a bad business for the American taxpayer to buy mortgages at a discount and so much so that hedge funds are willing to go along. That there is value to what the US government is buying. Secondly because hedge funds are already buying up these loans, crowding them out does not make much sense. And thirdly because working with hedge funds may actually reduce the size of the government intervention overall. In a sense Warren Buffet has already started operating in this direction as I am sure Paulson was very happy to see him choose to invest $5bn in Goldman Sachs. What Paulson needs now is cooperation with all financial players. Even hedge funds.