Bridgewater, one of the biggest and most highly regarded hedge funds, has decided not to participate in Geithner’s PPIP. Clusterstock has the best report I’ve seen so flip over there for more complete information.

Here’s a sample of what he has to say:

Additionally, quite frankly, the plan isn’t straightforward. Essentially it is to let private investors (especially these “funds”) buy these assets cheaply (which is the only reason they might be interested) and to simultaneously let the banks sell them at high prices (which is the only way they will sell them) at the expense of the taxpayer. So it gets around the transfer pricing problem because the public doesn’t understand the value of the leverage/non-recourse loan.

We don’t like the political/profile risks. If this plan gets scrutinized, which seems likely, there’s a lot about it that could cause controversy. Maybe we are misunderstanding it, but from what we seem to understand, given all of these issues, it looks to us like the sort of thing that the S.E.C. and other regulators wouldn’t allow if those of us in the private sector did it. Anyway, as it now stands, we don’t want to participate for these reasons.

It’s a pretty interesting read.