Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Poor John Edwards Dilemma

Hey folks,

Now you all know how to learn about the poor. It’s easy. You work for a Hedge Fund. You know, the richer you get, the worse you can feel about the poor. The MORE compassion you can show. We all know that, THAT must be the answer. Haircut Boy told us.

Back on May 8, 2007, MSNBC reported this.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Tuesday that he worked for a hedge fund to learn more about financial markets and their relationship to poverty in the United States.

Edwards won't disclose how much he got paid as a consultant to Fortress Investment Group, but said he did keep the money.

"It was primarily to learn, but making money was a good thing, too," the 2004 vice presidential nominee said in an interview with The Associated Press.

I love this statement. "It was primarily to learn, but making money was a good thing, too," Do not worry, if someone got offended they would just say it’s a joke and tell you to move on. He IS a Democrat. This is why the haircut thing is not a big deal either. Didn’t Clinton tie up an airport getting a haircut once?

Well John, looky looky what your buddies are doing. Reuters -U.S. Congress eyes private equity, hedge fund titans By Kevin Drawbaugh Wed Jul 11, 1:30 AM ET

The new kings of Wall Street -- as the managers of booming private equity and hedge funds have been dubbed in the business press -- will come under unaccustomed scrutiny on Wednesday before the U.S. Congress.

In three separate hearings on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are expected to ask whether these secretive and super-rich financiers pay enough taxes and whether the Bush administration does enough to protect the economy and investors from them.

{Laughing} I really have a hard time taking the LWL seriously. They want to tax these private “Super-rich” evil to the economy, evil to you, and friends of Bush, rich people. You know, it’s his fault that they are making money, and YOU are poor. They are doing this for you. And the fact "It was primarily to learn, but making money was a good thing, too," they want tax increases.

A handful of bills have been filed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives that would sharply raise tax rates paid by both private equity and hedge fund leaders, many of whom are billionaires but largely unknown to the public.

"People are definitely worried that this represents a chance to raise tax rates .... We'll see how much momentum it gains. But it's a big topic. It's getting a lot of attention," said Chrisanne Corbett, head of the private equity team and a managing director at Big Four accounting firm KPMG.

REALLY?

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday on taxing "carried interest," or the 20 percent cut of profits above targeted returns typically kept by senior partners of private equity and hedge funds on major deals.

Remember what Supreme Leader Wannabe Hillary said about profits?

"The other day the oil companies reported the highest profits in the history of the world. I want to take those profits and I want to put them into a strategic energy fund that will begin to fund alternative, smart energy, alternative and technology that will begin to actually move us toward the direction of independence. I have to tell you, I am not running for president to put Band-Aids on our problems."

This is who they are folks. Definitely who SHE is.

A bill already introduced in the House would raise carried interest taxes to as much as 35 percent, the top income tax rate, from the present capital gains tax rate of 15 percent.

Backers of the House bill -- including powerful House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat -- say it would close a loophole that lets a fortunate few dodge paying income taxes on carried interest.

Also in the morning, the House Financial Services Committee will convene a session to look into systemic risks to the economy and investors that may be posed by hedge funds.

It’s bad to the economy that these people make money. Are you seriously getting this? What they are saying?

Chairman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, has taken a circumspect approach to hedge fund issues since taking over the financial services panel following last November's elections that handed his party control of Congress.

On Wednesday afternoon, a hearing before the House domestic policy subcommittee will focus on small investors' exposure to hedge fund risk and the recent $4.13 billion initial public stock offering of private equity firm Blackstone Group.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, unsuccessfully asked federal regulators to delay Blackstone's IPO last month pending further examination.

Blackstone was the first high-profile private equity firm to bring in investors as a publicly traded partnership (PTP).

Fearing that a wave of similar IPOs could erode the tax base, Senate Finance leaders -- Montana Democrat Max Baucus and Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley -- have introduced a bill that would more than double the tax rate on PTPs. Vermont Democratic Rep. Peter Welch has introduced a similar bill in the House.

More money for YOU, less for them. BAD. {Laughing}

Taken together, the legislation and multiple public hearings threaten to shake the statutory underpinnings of one of the hottest sectors of the U.S. financial system.

If you have any doubt whatsoever, that these people will RUIN the economy out of their sheer ignorance, this is a blaring example. I wonder what John Edwards, Haircut Boy, has to say about all this. Maybe he should be subpoenaed and forced to tell Congress how much money he made while working for one. Maybe he should give them the inside scoop of how evil these people are.
Peter

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