Investor Leon Cooperman Sends Monster, Scathing Letter To Obama

[True Earthling]

Omega Advisors Founder Leon Cooperman sent a scathing letter to President Obama yesterday, and its contents are just short of being outright brutal.

snip...

Just to be clear, while I have been richly rewarded by a life of hard work (and a great deal of luck), I was not to-the-manor-born. My father was a plumber who practiced his trade in the South Bronx after he and my mother emigrated from Poland. I was the first member of my family to earn a college degree. I benefited from both a good public education system (P.S. 75, Morris High School and Hunter College, all in the Bronx) and my parents' constant prodding. When I joined Goldman Sachs following graduation from Columbia University's business school, I had no money in the bank, a negative net worth, a National Defense Education Act student loan to repay, and a six-month-old child (not to mention his mother, my wife of now 47 years) to support. I had a successful, near-25-year run at Goldman, which I left 20 years ago to start a private investment firm. As a result of my good fortune, I have been able to give away to those less blessed far more than I have spent on myself and my family over a lifetime, and last year I subscribed to Warren Buffet's Giving Pledge to ensure that my money, properly stewarded, continues to do some good after I'm gone.

To frame the debate as one of rich-and-entitled versus poor-and-dispossessed is to both miss the point and further inflame an already incendiary environment. It is also a naked, political pander to some of the basest human emotions - a strategy, as history teaches, that never ends well for anyone but totalitarians and anarchists.

Rather than assume that the wealthy are a monolithic, selfish and unfeeling lot who must be subjugated by the force of the state, set a tone that encourages people of good will to meet in the middle. When you were a community organizer in Chicago, you learned the art of waging a guerilla campaign against a far superior force. But you've graduated from that milieu and now help to set the agenda for that superior force. You might do well at this point to eschew the polarizing vernacular of political militancy and become the transcendent leader you were elected to be.

the letter...
http://www.thestreet.com/tsc/common/images/pdf/Omega%20Advisor1.pdf


story...
http://www.businessinsider.com/leon-cooperman-letter-to-obama-2011-11

[Zenlitened]

1. Investor Leon Cooperman is a Monumental Idiot. - n/t

[mike_c]

2. did you bother to read the letter?

Cooperman might or might not be WRONG, but he is certainly not an idiot.

[ret5hd]

4. I'd contend that he is a social idiot...he may be a finacial savant, ...

but his social and political ideas are idiocy.

[mike_c]

6. in other words, you disagree with him....

In most respects, I do too. But it does us no credit to accuse clearly intelligent, articulate people of being "Monumental Idiots." In fact, he makes numerous good points and he articulates them better than most, whether we agree with him or not. That makes him a smart adversary in my book, not an idiot to be dismissed out of hand.

[Zenlitened]

9. Ding. - n/t

[Zenlitened]

8. The letter and much, much more. - n/t

[leeroysphitz]

3. Oh noes!!!11 Is poor Leon gonna have to pay his taxes?

[libinnyandia]

5. We need higher taxes on the wealthy, not more wealthy people

giving money to whatever cause they want. Just go back to rates in the 1950's. That is not demonizing the wealthy.

[True Earthling]

10. We need more taxpayers i.e. jobs n/t

[libinnyandia]

15. We need both.

[Dawson Leery]

7. Another thief who prided himself on rising through the ranks of Goldman Sachs.

:puke:

[Ikonoklast]

11. Why is Leon so angry? If what Mr. Obama said doesn't apply to him, why does it bother him so?

Methinks he might be full of shit, he's just another Goldman Sachs thief who made his fortune through theft and feels guilty about all the people he screwed over in the process of his making it.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

12. Leon, we need to fit your head for a spike

This clueless fuck has no idea which side his bread is buttered on. He likes to talk about what history teaches us. I wonder what he thinks of the historical truism that if the people are oppressed for long enough, they WILL revolt. And Goldman Sachs alums will probably be a great target.

[woo me with science]

13. The letter is a window into the utter arrogance and cluelessness of the one percent.

They truly don't get it, because they have never had to live it.

I still fantasize about a mandatory "trading places" scenario to teach these fops something about the world they know nothing about.

[Raine]

14. To his credit he admits he had "good fortune" and he uses

his good fortune to help others. My complaint would be that if he is not happy with the way his peeps are portrayed, he should talk to them about "cleaning up their own act". Their bad image is due the rotten apples they harbor and make excuses for.

[dawg]

16. I would love to meet the President Obama this letter was written to ...

I wonder if he has a goatee?

[HughBeaumont]

17. Ah, playing the "Class Warfare!!"/"We're Not ALL Monsters!" card.

Doesn't change the FACTS, Leon, that most of you ARE monsters, OWS IS right on the money in terms of who they should be angry with, unbridled Capitalism IS part of the problem and if nothing replaces outgoing jobs or careers while wages continue to stagnate, your precious Capitalism has no chance of surviving.

I don't think the "warfare" :eyes: :eyes: is being played hard enough.

[HughBeaumont]

18. OK, this anus was just on CNBC now . . .

. . . sorry, he's just as bad as the rest of them.

He's supporting corporate raider/serial firer Mitt Flop Romney as president.

He's also a fearmonger - "disturbed by the economic direction Obama's taking this country", despite the fact that absolutely nothing at all has CHANGED since the Bewsh Admin economically.

So, yeah, not a moderate, not reasonable, just as bad as any Langone, Marcus or Welch. Firmly a heartless asshole 1%er.

[newspeak]

19. Leon has had a fabulous ten years or more

of gaining more wealth and has enjoyed deregulation, especially, the ending of glass-steagall. I don't know what he's whining about. He has increased his wealth, while others are losing every fekkin thing-homes, decent jobs, pensions. I really don't know what he's whining about. He apparently donates to programs that either aid him in continuing increasing his wealth or to those he THINKS deserves it. I'm wondering if one of those generous donations is to unthink tanks like the heritage foundation or ALEC? I really, really don't know what he's whining about. Of course, no surprise that the corporate owned media will give him a sounding board.

[Starry Messenger]

20. Awwwww.

:nopity:

[PETRUS]

21. Nobody is saying "the wealthy" are a problem.

Wealth itself is the problem. Too much of it in too few hands yields bad results.