Hedge fund 'masters of the universe' face Congressional grilling over their role in the global credit crunch

The five best-paid hedge fund managers – who between them made $12.6bn last year, even as the financial world began to crumble around them – were hauled before the US Congress yesterday and assailed over their huge salaries, their tax perks and their contribution to the credit crisis that has engulfed the globe.

In a piece of public theatre that reflected not just the present crisis, but also a decade or more of vastly increased income inequality, the five men declared themselves innocent of causing the market meltdown and insisted that their riches reflected hard work and investment insight.

As one Congressman, Elijah Cummings, put it, "these are five citizens who have more money than God", and he proceeded to tear …