Baltimore — (TFN): It looks like we found out what President Obama was actually doing in China last week. When he wasn’t bowing to foreign leaders or taking tours of historic China, our leader was giving the Chinese some financial advice.

Isn’t that a scary thought?

Just a couple of days after Obama touched down in Washington, China makes a very American decree. It’s telling its banks it had better shore up their capital situations or face strong sanctions from the government.

How the might have fallen. Once dominant hedge funds have been in a spectacular freefall since their complex world of finance imploded this year. Adrian Ash charts the rise and fall of these giants in Whiskey & Gunpowder: