Happy 2009! 
Unfortunately this latest video is not complete: on the second part of the interview we discussed about the future of Hedge Funds. I think that, given the various scandals and very disappointing performance, investors will be very cautious on investing in these opaque investment vehicles. The CNBC guest, an Hedge Fund Manager, did obviously disagree with me. He cited the Tremont Hedge Fund Index claiming that Hedge funds did better than the S&P and other indexes (they have lost only -20% vs the 38% loss of the S&P 500 Index). This might be true for a small sample of funds included in the Tremont index - many hedge fund don't participate, and many went out of business. The fact that Tremont itself lost 3 billions in the Madoff scandal isn't reassuring either.
it looks like I am not the only one with some negative views on Hedge Funds my concents are echoed in this bloomberg editorial
To the benefit of our students and non I have summarized some of my views in the Dean's Letter December-January Edition available for free download here
The rebound in oil prices makes me very positive about commodities - especially agricultural ones. With one of the worse year in commodities in decades (The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials dropped 40 percent, the biggest plunge since 1957) and no improvement in the fundamentals of many commodities I feel that commodities do deserve a place in every portfolio. Doubtful ? This businessweek research might clarify my point
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