Depression? What depression?
Fears that the recession could turn into something far worse are wracking markets around the globe. Although the hedge fund industry didn’t escape the carnage of what many are calling the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, some managers are doing just fine, raking in money hand over fist. In 2008, in fact, four of them made more than the $1 billion that JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid for troubled investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. last spring in a shotgun merger orchestrated by the feds. James Simons of black-box fame at Renaissance Technologies Corp. earned a whopping $2.5 billion. He was trailed by John Paulson of Paulson & Co. ($2 billion), John Arnold of Centaurus Energy ($1.5 billion) and George Soros of Soros Fund Management ($1.1 billion). All but Arnold are repeat...