Are hedge funds the reason to the bad economy in USA?

[italkcash]

I am just wondering, as these mayor players seem to have a big saying in the markets today. Hedge Funds are definitely causing troubles for the US market as they constantly hedge the weak forces. For example oil and food, skyrocketing right now, and seems like a good bet for hedge funds to keep in inflating, especially with the low regulative on the mercantile markets.

Or to put it differently, if I ran a Hedge Fund, I would not sit back and do anything but playing the oil, as I could see it would give me astronomical returns in the portfolio.

[elvenrunelord]

Yea and your going to get screwed probably soon. America i think will be nationalizing the oil industry in the next couple of years to prevent it from being used to finance terrorists.

[BrendaMarie]

Can someone please explain to me what a hedge fund is? I've heard the term and tried to read up on it but still don't understand it.