As we know, the Corporate Press loves to write these puff pieces in regard to
people in positions of power and
individuals who are tremendously wealthy, and guess what?
Leon Cooperman, a multibillionaire certainly is one of those individuals that
the Washington post loves to write puff pieces on, so what does that mean?
That means that we gonna do a little
segment on the star of when rich men cry care.
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>> I can't.
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That's it.
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>> Nothing like that video will never get old, I can watch it over and
over again on a loop.
Now, Leon Cooperman, of course, was crying about the possibility of having to
pay a wealth tax on national tv that's what that video is from.
And he's gotten a lot of negative attention since then,
but don't worry, the Washington post is here to save the day.
They're writing this complimentary piece about him, which is unbelievable.
It's titled the moral calculations of a billionaire.
Now, according to the story, Leon Cooperman has made more than $2.5 billion
dollars as an important member of society, okay?
Leon Cooperman has really provided important services to the country in
the form of an investor and hedge fund manager,
that's where he has accumulated his wealth.
There are several recurring themes in this piece.
One is that Leon Cooperman cannot understand why people dislike
billionaires.
So let me give you those excerpts, Cooperman writes the Washington post,
responded to most of the personal emails kept record of the occasional death
threats.
And wrote letters to politicians such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen.
Bernie Sanders and Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Whenever they criticized billionaires in their speeches because
he couldn't understand what exactly had he done wrong.
What rule had he broken?
In fact, he's quoted as saying, how do you become wealthy?
You develop a product or service that people want.
The world is better off for a Larry Ellison, a Bill Gates.
Look at the jobs they created, look at the good they did for the world.
The attack on wealthy people makes no sense.
Well, of course it makes no sense to someone like Leon Cooperman who
love's a system that ensures that working Americans pay a far larger share
of their income in taxes.
Especially compared to billionaires like himself,
that it's not about we hate billionaires because they provide services.
No, it's about the unfair, unjust double standard that continues
to exist in our economic system that he gets to take advantage of.
>> Yeah, so first of all in the peace,
there's a documentary about me called Mad as Hell.
And some of the critics said, well, yes, there was criticism of
banks throughout the documentary, but it wasn't scathing enough.
There's plenty of skating to me anyways, but it's funny that
the rules don't apply though when you're talking about really rich and
powerful people cuz this piece had no counterpoint.
It was just Cooperman is a God, he's just the most wonderful angel you've ever met.
And we're all befuddled as to why anyone would ever criticize him.
You don't wanna give any other perspective.
It's just it seems amazing to me.
So there's that issue with this piece, okay, now,
>> It's weird,
is it because the paper is owned by Jeff Bezos, who is also a billionaire and
probably doesn't like the fact that there's negative feelings toward
billionaires like him in the country?
>> That sounds conspiratorial and I don't know what you're talking about.
Okay, so that's what the mainstream media would say.
Now, as the Cooperman himself, I think that he is genuinely puzzled.
>> Yeah.
>> Right?
I don't think he's lying, I don't think he's like an evil Hench,
not a henchman but an evil character like Dr. Evil and Austin Powers sitting
there with his hairless cat going, [SOUND] >> No, he is a little dumb.
>> No, I don't know about dumb.
He's obviously smart in some ways, okay?
But in a I think that these extremely wealthy folks live in their own bubbles.
>> Yeah, there is attached from reality.
>> Yeah, they are so nice cuz they've given away so much money which he has,
which we'll talk about in a second, right?
And I don't know how what he has told
politicians if he gives political donations.
But what he apparently does not understand is that the great majority of both
the wealthy and corporate interests when they give money to politicians.
There is a very clear request,
now rig the system on our behalf that's not hyperbole guys.
The drug companies have told their politicians the government
should not be allowed to negotiate drug prices with us.
Well, that's insane, that obviously hurts the average American,
that's obviously corrupt.
And I can give you dozens of other examples like that, but
maybe Cooperman doesn't do it.
And so he's like, I don't get it.
I give to cancer, I give to this, I give to that, why am I the barrier?
Because Leon all of your buddies if it isn't you, and I'm not convinced that it
isn't you cuz the Washington post didn't do any real journalism here, right?
But if it's not you, all of your friends are giving with strings attached
saying my taxes must be lower.
You will make capital gains lower than taxes than it is for
the average man who works for a living.
And you will deregulate my industries, you will not be able to negotiate with me,
etc, etc.
So we're not angry at wealthy people,
we're angry at wealthy people who specifically bribe our politicians to
set up the unfair system that you all have taken advantage of.
>> Let me simplify it more for smart man Hedge fund manager, who's having
a difficult time understanding what the climate is in the country.
While a huge portion of the country is forced to serve as
underpaid frontline workers during a deadly pandemic.
While they have been denied hazard pay, while they've been denied increased pay,
while being forced to work mandatory overtime.
The billionaires in this country have accumulated tremendous wealth during
the pandemic.
In fact, the country's 745 billionaires have
seen their wealth grow by a whopping 70% during the pandemic.
So if you are a frontline worker, if you're working at a grocery store,
if you're being forced to work mandatory overtime without additional pay.
If you're getting sick with Covid and your manager is telling you, just hide it,
you've gotta come back to work, don't let anyone know you're sick.
You're gonna get a little frustrated when you see how this system is really
playing out.
When individuals like Leon Cooperman continue growing their wealth by doing
literally nothing.
Honestly, the way that their wealth is accumulated is through the stock market,
which is artificially inflated with Federal reserve cash and
corporate stock buybacks.
Yeah, people are angry, people are super angry.
Don't take it personal, but it does get personal when Leon Cooperman's like,
I will raise my hand and I will be the person who defends the rich.
And defends this incredibly unfair rigged economic system.
Now, despite the article's attempt to frame Leon Cooperman as like some sort of
hero, a billionaire that's unlike others, they can't even really do it, right?
So let me tell you why.
So they also write,
he'd been born to poor immigrant parents on the losing end of a capitalist economy.
He attended public schools,
taken on debt to become the first in his family to attend college.
Worked 80 hour weeks made smart decisions,
benefited from some good luck, amassed a fortune for himself and
for his clients and paid hundreds of millions in taxes to the government.
Now, what percentage of those taxes account for his income?
And let's compare that to the percentage that regular working Americans pay for
their income in taxes.
And I love the framing there, right?
He did everything right unlike all you complainers, right?
All you complainers who also went to college, but
tuition ended up being far more exorbitant and you had to dig yourself into a massive
hole that you'll never be able to climb out of.
You did everything right to kind of, but not really stop complaining and shut up.
That's the messaging in that excerpt and it's gross, Eli Saslow.
Now, he is also apparently very extravagant.
He likes to treat himself, which is fine.
But what I found interesting about this next excerpt Junk, is that he wants to
defend this system so much because it's so fair and he needs the money, right?
Okay, he says, I don't wanna say it's all play money at this point, but
what else could I possibly spend it on?
Cooperman sometimes wondered, his wife's walk in closet was already bigger
than the south Bronx apartment he'd grown up in.
Their Florida home, has a custom built infinity pool and
in five years he'd never once gone for a swim.
And look, all of those luxurious things are all fine and
dandy if you're paying your fair share in taxes, the very taxes that
literally made this guy break down in tears on national television.
>> Okay, so I just wanna answer his question.
He says look guys, we're not against the wealthy, I've said this a billion times.
Lebron James is wealthy, he didn't do anything wrong.
Oprah's wealthy, she didn't do anything wrong.
And in earning his money, I don't know what he did or didn't do, but if you told
me that, hey, you did a forensic analysis and he didn't do anything wrong.
I believe that, I don't think that's impossible.
And so okay, Leon, that's not the issue.
So number one, you're not helping to fix the system at all.
So, and a lot of wealthy folks do not a lot, but
some do like the example I often gives Joe Samberg.
He's the founder of aspiration that they're our sponsor of ours.
So you can take that with a grain of salt if you want.
But Joe's work is proof's in the pudding, so what did he do?
He got wealthy and he was very poor like Leon was, and then he came up and
he fought for the earned income tax credit in California.
And that is transferred billions of dollars to the working poor,
like his mom used to be, right?
So that's him showing an action what you do.
And now he's doing about measure in California to raise the minimum wage to
$18.
Now, what do most wealthy people do that are in Cooperman circles?
They fight against higher wages,
they fight against any tax credit that goes to the poor and
they constantly fight for more tax cuts for their class, more deregulation.
>> Right.
>> So until you check yourself and your own group and start to do real good work
in the system to fix the system, you don't get to say, hey, you know what?
I gave money to a hospital, which he did.
He's given apparently about $150 million that's a lot of money, right?
Overall, he has $2.5 billion, he says he's gonna give away 90% of his wealth.
I largely believe him, those are good things, but
that doesn't mean that you haven't done anything wrong.
The reason why we have the massive income inequality we have now,
is because the system got rigged.
Now the student loans are greater, the housing prices are worse.
All of those things have put the younger generation in a hole that they have a very
hard time getting out of.
It wasn't by accident and it wasn't a matter of course people bribed American
politicians through campaign contributions to set up that unjust system.
If you're looking to do that, then great, we don't mind at all.
In fact, we love it, right?
But if you say, let's maintain that horribly unjust system and
don't criticize me no deal.
>> And let's just be clear, he made his wealth in a way that runs
counter to everything that we demand on this show.
The reason why he doesn't want higher wages,
the reason why he doesn't want regulations on industry.
The reason why he doesn't want all the things that we talk about on this show,
is because it would harm what?
The value of shares in the stock market, like does a Hedge fund manager come on,
that's how he builds his wealth, right?
Providing returns on investments, it's just it runs counter.
Everything that we need in this country to fix a rigged economic system,
runs counter to what he needs to accumulate the wealth that he has.
And one final thing, I gotta note before cuz we're running out of time.
I mean dude got caught doing insider trading as well and he had to settle with
the security and exchange commission for nearly $5 million, this was back in 2016.
So I love how the Washington post is like,
he did everything right like Insider trading.
We'll leave that part out of there, noticed that that quote was sighted from
the Los Angeles times, not the Washington Post piece, check.
>> Yeah, look, I think that they're good people that work in finance,
these days it's hard to find them, but they definitely exist.
But Cooperman who has that on his record and as far as we can tell,
has done nothing to rein in the excess of Wall Street.
Nothing to rein in the excessive campaign contributions that have bought those
politicians with Wall Street money, doesn't have a great to stand on.
But I think the most important point here is,
you wouldn't know any of that from reading that Washington post story.
I mean, you gonna write, the guys that angel on earth and you're not even gonna
mention the SCC finding had to pay for Insider trading, it's over the top.