Hedge Funds and Insider Trading

This latest Wall Street story is ready-made for the big screen — insider trading cases as colorful and egregious as they come.
At the center, Galleon hedge fund chief Raj Rajaratnam, an outsized personality with a Rolodex spanning Silicon Valley and beyond. His counterpart — "Octopussy" — well, the name speaks for itself.
The cases unveil a world where everyone is after an edge. Where regulators are shut out. Where hot tips turn into huge windfalls. And where the difference between a tip and insider information can be a very blurry line.
This hour, On Point: big insider trading busts, and what they mean for the rest of us.
You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.Guests:

Joining us from New York is Gregory Zuckerman, a senior writer and columnist for The Wall Street Journal who has closely followed these insider trading cases. Read his recent coverage here and here. His new book, out this month, is “The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of how John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History.”

From Philadelphia, we're joined by Arthur Laby, professor of law at Rutgers School of Law. Before joining the Rutgers faculty he served nearly ten years on the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Also from New York, we're joined by Richard Sylla, professor of economics and the history of financial institutions at New York University Stern School of Business. His books include “The American Capital Market” and “A History of Interest Rates.”