That’s enough to end family homelessness in America

Image credit: Pictures of Money (CC BY 2.0)

The 25 highest paid hedge fund managers in America took home $13 billion in compensation last year, according to Reuters.

They’re able to make such astronomical amounts thanks in part to the many loopholes in our financial regulation. So-called “activist” hedge funds, for example, abuse lax securities laws to gain large stakes in public companies, and then demand cost-cutting, layoffs, and more debt. These moves enrich the hedge funds while often dooming the companies they acquire.

To top it off, hedge funds are costly investments whose performance often just mirrors the stock market overall, despite charging exorbitant fees. In 2015, those fees added up to a cool $13 billion in compensation for the 25 managers at the top of Reuters’ list.

It’s hard to wrap your head around a number like $13 billion. To make it a little easier, here are a few comparisons — inspired by a report from the Coalition on Human Needs.

$13 billion could end family homelessness for ten years

Image credit: Lavin Han (CC BY-ND 2.0)

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has said that it would take $11 billion over ten years to provide housing subsidies to 550,000 more families — an amount that could effectively end family homelessness, since in January 2015, HUD found that 564,708 people were homeless on a given night.

And we’d still have $2 billion left over.
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