Hedge Funds, Leverage, and the Lessons of Long-Term Capital Management

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets recommends a number of measures designed to constrain excessive leverage in the financial system. The events in global financial markets in the summer and fall of 1998 demonstrated that excessive leverage can greatly magnify the negative effects of any event or series of events on the financial system as a whole. The near collapse of Long-Term Capital Management (“LTCM”), a private sector investment firm, highlighted the possibility that problems at one financial institution could be transmitted to other institutions, and potentially pose risks to the financial system.