Mark your calenders:  Dealbook reports that the S.E.C. has scheduled a public meeting for Monday, Dec. 4, to consider two measures that would tighten rules governing hedge funds.

Kinda, semi-related: my private equity friend at Going Private, who, as a private equity player, has no reason to be nice to hedge fund managers, defends the not uncommon 2 and 20 hedge fund fee structure and worries about what regulatory madness looms.  (Note for my less sophisticated readers: 2 and 20 refers to an annual management fee equal to 2% of the assets under management and an annual performance fee equal to 20% of the fund's profits for the year.)

Here's a trenchant and ominous passage:

[G]iven the liquidity in the marketplace and the number of funds to choose from, it is difficult for the rational observer to find fault with the holy grail of hedge funds, "two and twenty," given the rather enthusiastic acquiescence of the many "victims" of hedge funds to the structure.  But, alas, Milton Friedman is dead.  There is no viable moderate political party in the United States clever enough to be socially liberal, or at least socially agnostic, and still possessed of the sense required to be truly fiscally conservative.  The second coming of financial paternalism is upon us, dear reader.

Blame for the ills that befall us now will be laid, I suspect, on the shoulders of the easiest targets.  Mysterious and envy inspiring hedge funds certainly find themselves on the short list.  The only question for me at this point is "how much damage can be done in the next six years and how long will it take to repair it?"