To the amazement of many outside the hedge fund industry, no one actually knows the size of the business. People know roughly how big it is and quote a number of somewhere in the region of $700-$800 billion. But no one is sure, and this number seems to have been frozen in time and may, in fact, be in need of an upward revision which would take it to over $1 trillion.
If this is right - and more on the logic of how you get there later - it has far-reaching implications for everyone, not least the regulators as it represents something of a watershed. Suddenly, hedge funds are no longer a quaint cottage industry that can be left to their own devices without having any impact if it all goes wrong, except on a small group of rich people who should have known better anyway.
The reality is that...