The SEC and CFTC recently jointly drafted new hedge fund rules, instead of creating separate sets of regulations that inevitably would conflict in the details.  As drafted. the disclosure rules are a decent attempt to not burden smaller funds with too much red tape, according to CNBC Senior Editor John Carney.

• Hedge Funds under $1 billion under management ... will only have to file annual reports containing basic information about their strategy, performance, counter-party credit risk and leverage.  Initial filings likely will burden smaller funds, but future filings should have less of an impact - as the filing of new Form PF becomes more-or-less commoditized. 

    Hedge Funds to Provide More Data, But It's Not Likely to Provide More Insight.  Mr. Carney's only real objection is how the information will be used.  The regulators won't be able to share the information with the public, which means that they'll have to rely on internal experts to evaluate whether a fund or group of funds is creating a systemic risk.  And there's zero evidence that regulators have the competence to do this.  As a result, the government will be working with more data that's likely to provide much additional insight.  That, in turn, might lead some to believe that regulators have better control over systemic risk - which would not be the case.   [CNBC.com, 1/26]