Stealing from the rich:

Hedge-fund hemorrhage
$60 billion liquidated in last three years, shrinking investor options
By Thomas Kostigen, MarketWatch

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- If you are considering investing in a hedge fund, you may be shut out -- not because the hedge fund is oversubscribed and closed to new investors, which has been the usual reason until now, but because so many hedge funds have shut down.
Funds representing almost $7 billion in assets have shut down so far this year, according to research published by Absolute Return magazine, a unit of HedgeFund Intelligence. Add that to the approximately 50 hedge funds representing $18.6 billion in assets last year, and the 83 funds managing approximately $35 billion that were liquidated in 2006 (including the collapse of a single firm, $9.1 billion Amaranth Advisors that year) and you have fewer choices in which to invest your money.