Hedge Fund Economist on Europe’s Economic Woes

Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Author: Ricardo Kaulessar, HedgeFund.net

A longtime economist in the hedge fund industry thinks a “cathartic event” could force a quicker recovery in the European economy.

Constance Hunter, chief economist at Connecticut hedge fund Aladdin Capital Management, in a recent interview with former NBC News anchor John Seigenthaler identified three such events that will force European policy makers to make tough decisions to ensure their respective countries don’t suffer the financial collapse and resulting civil unrest that has already plagued a nation such as Greece.

Hunter told Seigenthaler, chairman of hedge fund event organizer FINForums, that bank failures, German voters choosing politicians opposed to aid and European Central Bank members declining to extend credit by purchasing country bonds, are those events that could force the hand of European politicians.

“The reality is that decisions may not be made in the European Commission’s offices in Brussels, but on the streets of Munich and Bonn,” said Hunter in a conversation leading up to her appearance at the FINforums Annual Hedge Fund Summit on September 14 at the Princeton Club in New York City.