"the best and brightest spend their time where the compensation is best"

Where is the evidence for this wild generalization?! It is just as arrogant as it is false. Its like saying, "We have got be the smartest because we get paid a lot."

Survey after survey is showing that in the eyes of people, trust in finance ranks at the bottom. Have you seen for instance the Edelman survey?
Where'd be trust in hedge funds within the world of finance? Make a guess, perhaps at the the bottom within finance? What do we know, is it the smartest or the least trusted who spend their time in hedge funds?

Let's try to be less arrogant and more evidence based.