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Everything you need to know before the biggest hedge fund conference of the year kicks off Tuesday night
(Instagram, Thedoctorj) The agenda is serious, but it's still Vegas. You have to pool.
On Tuesday evening around 2,000 hedge fund managers, DC insiders, Wall Street bankers, reporters, security experts, and will.i.am will descend on the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas for an annual four day meeting of the minds.
Business Insider will also be in the scrum covering the action live.
It's like this — SALT Las Vegas, an annual conference hosted by investment firm SkyBridge Capital, is the biggest hedge fund conference of the year, and the entire Street will be either there, or listening for the nuggets of news that come from there.
The agenda includes on and off the record talks with everyone from former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to Sir Richard Branson, who is holding a talk about drug legalization. Michael J Fox will be there, and so will hedge fund managers like Kyle Bass, Jim Chanos and Leon Cooperman. James Carville and Karl Rove will share the stage for a panel on the 2016 Presidential election.
That's just a slice of the conference action.
There's some behind-the-scenes drama underlying the whole event too. CNBC once had exclusive rights to put SALT on air, but since the network broke with SkyBridge CEO Anthony Scaramucci last summer, Bloomberg and Fox Business Network are covering it this year. CNBC will be nowhere. Insiders expect the other two networks to really turn it up in CNBC's absence.
So anyway — you can imagine this is a pretty colorful event.
(Reuters/ Steve Marcus ) Anthony Scaramucci, CEO of SkyBridge
To get you all caught up, lets run down some highlights from last year:
Appaloosa Management's David Tepper sent markets rolling when he told an entire audience of money-runners that he was "nervous" about the global economy. "I think we're OK. But, listen, there's times to make money and there's times not to lose money," he said. This is probably you're supposed to think about preserving some of your money...I think you can still be long, but I think you're supposed to have some cash now."
Fox Business Network's senior correspondent Charles Gasparino wears a fanny pack.
Famed short-seller Jim Chanos absolutely nailed his call that Macau, once the world's gambling mega center, was about to collapse. Since his call gambling revenue on the island has fallen by 50%. Casino stocks are hurting, especially Wynn Resorts, and no one knows when the carnage will end except Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Author/investor Nassim Taleb got into it with economist Larry Summers (are you shocked?)
Lenny Kravitz rocked the house.
SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci announced that he was reviving the show, Wall Street Week, and taking some CNBC heavy-hitters to do it. The show's been on for two weeks now, and we have to say the guest list has been stacked!
Men wore a lot of plaid jackets.
Nouriel Roubini laid out 6 risks to the global economy, and some have only gotten worse over the last year. Take this one for example: "Putin is not just after Ukraine, he wants to create a Eurasian union," he said. Roubini nailed the risk of a downturn in China as well.
Check out the full SALT agenda here, and we'll let you know when we land in Vegas.
And here's Gasparino in a fanny pack again. Just because.
(Business Insider)
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