I worked for a prominent hedge fund (20B USD AUM at the time) for 9 years and never first hand witnessed any excesses. There was always the third hand accounts

I worked for a prominent hedge fund (20B USD AUM at the time) for 9 years and never first hand witnessed any excesses. There was always the third hand accounts of something happening. I did work in backoffice IT and not for one of the desks, so not odd I wouldn't have seen anything firsthand. Probably closest I saw to show of wealth would be the rare occasions I drove in and parked in the building. You'd see a few Ferraris parked even in the middle of winter in Chicago, and that's not counting the CEOs cars that were kept behind a keycarded garage within the garage.