21 Sept 2010 BBC Hardtalk interviews Hugh Hendry, CEO of hedge fund Eclectica Asset management. (Presenter) You are a risk-taker at a time when regulators are trying to de-risk financial markets. Does that make life difficult for you? (Hugh Hendry) Yes it does. And by implication it makes life difficult for everyone. And risk is used commonly and I don’t know if it’s fully understood. Is risk truth? Is what I do the pursuit of truth? And therefore have we reached a point in society where the truth is unpalatable? (Presenter) Another way of putting it is that it is a form of gambling or betting? (Hugh Hendry) Well I think the objection is the lack of symmetry. It’s when it goes the other way and it evokes the notion of a subsidy or a bailout. I think that is what rankles in the mind. And that’s what is causing this much needed debate. What we’ve seen in the last 3 years that is not capitalism. I promise you my risk-taking is not underwritten by the public purse. I guess I am drawing a distinction between the banking community and the hedge fund community. (Presenter) You make a lot of your money by taking a negative view, by ruthlessly exposing what you see as the overvaluation of certain assets, or currencies, or even national economies. And that makes you enemies doesn’t it? (Hugh Hendry) (Laughs) I’m kind of gasping for air. If only I was ruthless I tell you… I get something right, well done me. I get something wrong I get the consequences. I’ve capitalised upon my …