Even on Wall Street, the sums being thrown at talent by a new breed of hedge funds inspires shock and awe. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said a senior figure at a bulge-bracket investment bank. “They have a bunch of people that just spend their time meeting for coffees, lunches, dinners, with any trader who will take their call. They know every person, from the first-year analyst to the partner … They have an insatiable appetite and they’re bidding up talent to a crazy, obscene level.”
Asked whether this was a headache for the old big beasts of finance — the likes of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley — the banker replied: “Oh, it’s way more than a headache. They’ve gutted