Looming crisis for the very rich and for those of us that live off them like remoras, which is to say, most of us! "Performance fees" for hedge funders have been taxed at just 15%, due to some code we'll never understand—but those fatcats down in D.C. have finally gotten wise. (They're also working on upping the tax base for private equity firms that go public.) We say a change to the tax rate will actually pretty much destroy Manhattan's insane real estate, contemporary art and (slightly less insane) domestic help markets. Hello, this bubble won't inflate itself! Think of those slobs at Douglas Elliman, and of poor Matthew Marks—and of Inez who always handwashes those 1200 thread count sheets so well. What'll happen to Inez now?

Congress Weighs End to Tax Break for Hedge Funds [NYT]
The Big Chill [Trader Daily]