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Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London: Writing in the latest issue of the EDHEC-Risk Institute’s newsletter, Noël Amenc, Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School and Director, EDHEC-Risk Institute asks: 'Is the crisis financial?’

He writes: "It has become fashionable to blame the financial industry for its alleged role in the current crisis. It is certainly true that high-flying bankers, who often arrogantly flaunt their large bonuses and academic achievements, are the perfect scapegoats. However, with the facts at hand, this search for an ideal culprit is perhaps a bit too simple to be fair".

Reviewing several issues drawn from the past five years, Amenc finds evidence of times when 'political expedience seems to have taken precedence over scientific facts’.

Hedge funds and the subprime crisis, or how to intervene when it’s too late

Amenc writes: "The French President Nicolas Sarkozy had previously distinguished himself in 2007 by blaming hedge funds, and speculators generally, for the emerging subprime crisis, even though this was palpable nonsense". Amenc points out that the EDHEC-Risk Institute had claimed, as early as August 2007, that hedge funds were not responsible for the financial crisis. "Investment in hedge funds made up less than 5% of total institutional investment, and strategies with high exposure to credit risk acco......................

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