Several hedge funds have been buying largely into the processed uranium market, causing most of the new demand for uranium and helping drive up the price more than fourfold within the past year. Hedge Funds & the Uranium "Arms Race".

According to the latest survey on hedge fund salaries by industry publication Alpha Magazine, founding executives at three major hedge funds took home well over $1 billion (500 million pounds) last year. And the average pay for the top 25 hedge fund managers rose a staggering 57% to $570 million in 2006 from 2005. has a bit more detail on that.

And in "RBS Makes Rival $98.1B Bid for ABN Amro"; Several banks led by the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC said Wednesday it would make a rival bid of 72.3 billion euros ($98.1 billion), over 10% over Barclays' PLC $91.16 billion offer for ABN Amro. For anyone not following this story, it was started by some hedge fund shareholders who demanded the sale, and the following ruckus has been extraordinary as it may lead to the world's largest bank takeover. Previous stories here and here.

Finally, according to the Vancouver Sun's coverage of the Canadian Energy Research Institute annual oil conference in Calgary this week, mega investments in pension and hedge funds will continue to keep oil prices at or near current highs for the foreseeable future.