ARE THERE TOO MANY HEDGE FUNDS?

John Mauldin addresses the question. Seems to me this is sort of like asking: are there too many shoe manufacturers? It doesn't really concern me. Hedge funds are just alternative investment vehicles:

In fact, the great majority of equity hedge funds have exactly the same purpose and goals as most equity mutual funds: finding value in the equity world. Hedge funds simply have more tools at their disposal in their quest for value, and most attempt to do so while at the same time dampening the volatility of the market. While one could argue that a continued proliferation of long/short US equity hedge funds would mean that the opportunities for finding value will be more difficult, and thus returns would be depressed, that does not mean that hedge funds are a bubble, any more than 50,000 mutual funds constitute a bubble.

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