THE idea behind one of the most innovative and \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00adinfluential philanthropic organisations of our time sprang from one of the more boneheaded macroeconomic calls ever made on Wall Street. Or as hedge fund \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00admaestro Paul Tudor Jones tells it: \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cThe biggest error I\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ve ever made had the best possible outcome.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/p>\n
The story begins in the summer of 1987. Stock prices were soaring, but so, too, were interest rates. Jones, then 32 and having made buckets of money during the go-go 1980s, was getting nervous. That September he told his investors that the stock market reminded him of 1929 and a crash was inevitable.<\/p>\n
Even after October\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s brutal 23% one-day drop, Jones remained apocalyptic. He called up fellow hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin and pleaded: \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cIt\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s happening. We\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2re going into a great depression. We\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ve got to do something about it. I want to start a foundation to help, and I\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2d like you to be involved.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/p>\n
Of course, Jones was dead wrong about a depression, but that hasn\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t mattered. He\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s gone on to become a Wall Street titan, with some $14.7bn (\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a38.3bn 7.8?, E11.9bn) under management. More to the point, his brainchild, a charity called Robin Hood \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 which was born out of the direst predictions \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 has become a paragon, forging a new model for philanthropy and attracting heaps of cash from an enviable roster of high-profile benefactors.<\/p>\n