A Davos grows in the desert

Anthony Scaramucci has elevated a Vegas hedge fund confab into a conference of big ideas.

FORTUNE -- Hedge fund-of-funds manager Anthony Scaramucci is often referred to by his nickname, "the Mooch." His hair is coiffed, his shirts are pink, and he likes to throw off brow-raising quotes with the recklessness of a man who's living in a powder keg and giving off sparks. Take, for example, what he told New York Magazine last spring: "I MORE

Larry Fink's radical retirement recommendation

BlackRock's CEO says that the U.S. may need to make retirement savings mandatory.

FORTUNE -- BlackRock Inc. chief executive Larry Fink said during a speech Tuesday that longer life spans and underfunded retirement plans are the defining challenge of our age, and went so far as to recommend that the U.S. consider making retirement savings mandatory.

Fink acknowledged that retirement under-funding is not a new issue, but times have changed and the MORE

David Stockman's dystopia

Ronald Reagan's former budget director, David Stockman, talks about his new book, what Republicans got wrong, and why private equity is the great deformation.

FORTUNE -- The sun shines on David Stockman, streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows in a conference room high above Midtown Manhattan. Stockman, 66, is smiling, thoroughly relishing our conversation about his new book, The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America. It's a 700-page polemic full of MORE

Should Steve Cohen shut down SAC?

A new arrest at an SAC fund brings the government closer to Steve Cohen's door. Now might be a good time to become a family office in order to avoid future scrutiny.

FORTUNE -- The past few days haven't been kind to Steve Cohen, founder of the mega-hedge fund SAC Capital.

On Thursday, a judge decided not to approve his firm's settlement of insider trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A MORE

SAC Capital settles insider trading charges

Hedge fund affiliates of SAC Capital will pay more than $600 million.

FORTUNE -- Regulators announced Friday that affiliates of the hedge fund SAC Capital had settled insider trading charges for more than $600 million. While the amount is stunning -- with one settlement touted by the Securities and Exchange Commission as "the largest ever in an insider trading case" -- some believe that this could actually be a positive development for MORE

Meet Content Partners: The investors who bought CSI

Content Partners lands its largest deal to date with CSI, one of television's most profitable properties.

FORTUNE -- When Content Partners said that it had bought a 50% interest in the CSI television franchise, the announcement marked a major milestone for a specialty financial firm that is quietly transforming the way that producers, artists, directors, and even major financial firms buy and sell the rights to future cash flows from film, television, MORE

Cyberdefense: A new opportunity for investors

Budget cuts loom for traditional military contractors - but electronic-security companies will flourish.

FORTUNE -- It's no secret that the Defense Department faces draconian budget cuts if Congress can't avoid its latest standoff by March. Between that and the winding down of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, defense companies have been facing a relatively lean future, and those stocks have lagged the S&P 500 (SPX) for the past year.

But even as troops come MORE

LionTree roars with Liberty-Virgin deal

With the Liberty Global deal for Virgin Media, Aryeh Bourkoff's boutique firm takes the spotlight.

FORTUNE -- Liberty Global's $23.3 billion agreement to acquire Virgin Media has thrust little-known investment advisor LionTree into the spotlight, giving it a place among the likes of Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

LionTree was the lead advisor to Liberty (LBTYA) on its bid for Virgin (VMED), which by any measure was a very big deal. Liberty-Virgin would be MORE

Liberty Global to buy UK's Virgin Media

Deal marks the second mega-buyout this week, expands John Malone's empire

FORTUNE -- Liberty Global (LBTYA) today agreed to acquire UK- based cable company Virgin Media (VMED) for $23.3 billion, a move that signals the market is willing to support big, high-price deals and also creates one of the world's largest broadband communications companies.

Liberty's announcement about the acquisition was released just hours after computer maker Dell Inc. (DELL) said it was being MORE

Can private equity solve Dell's dilemma?

If Michael Dell keeps control, what is the point of going private?

FORTUNE -- Details continue to leak about a possible leveraged buyout of Dell Inc. (DELL), the once high-flying computer maker that has fallen on hard times.

Initial reports late Monday were that private equity firms Silver Lake Partners and TPG Capital both were in talks with Dell, but Fortune has learned from multiple sources that each firm was working independently MORE