Steinhardt, Hedge Fund Vet Now 'Less Of A Capitalist'

footnoted.org:

We take a break from our usual troll through the filings because last night, I had a chance to hear legendary hedge fund investor Michael Steinhardt speak at a Brandeis event at the Harmonie Club. Though Steinhardt has been retired from the industry for nearly 15 years now, and said he spends most of his time on philanthropic issues, including trying to set up a charter school that focuses on teaching Hebrew in (of all places as the Brooklyn native joked last night) Gerritsen Beach, he had lots to say about the current economic situation, including how impossible it is to really predict anything.

Read the whole story: footnoted.org

Comments

[butonelife]

Less of a Capitalist, huh? Him and millions of other Americans.­..

[Ponderus]

"...less of a capitalist­..."

and more of a speckled egg.

This is what happens to little boys who got hot for Ayn Rand.

[butonelife]

LOL

[zukervati]

Well duh, let me lend you my copy of "Das Kapital". This mess was as predictable as rising of the sun the following day - read it an weep!

[Olbys Ag'Schooldiploma]

And who is this guy?

[mmgbizgirl]

So you want a gold star or something? You got your payday I'm sure.

[MikeDu]

If you haven't become "less of a capitalist" after the last 6 months then you simply haven't been paying attention. The 'capitalist' concept used to be society ordered to best benefit corporate interests. But in recent years its morphed into society allowing profiteering speculators to make wildly dangerous bets that endanger everybody. If that's what modern capitalism is then deal me out too.

[ranch111]

Not less of a capitalist. Less of a crook.

[RandVictims]

And the difference izzzzzzzzz­z.........­...???

[MountPanic]

The size of the take!

[4httr]

Less time tending to hedge funds allows more time to tend to his gardens as well well as taming that shrub that occupies his upper lip.

[socialmistfit]

Hedge fund managers are not true capitalists, they are professional gamblers of other peoples' money. They don't produce anything, they feed off the real producers like the looters and moochers populating the political left.

Also, Michael Steinhardt has been a registered Democrat and liberal cause fund-raiser for years. So, why is this news that now he is retired with a pocket full of cash he has joined the liberal capitalism-bashing crowd?

[stepintothelight]

What a coincidence ... Birth made me less of a capitalist!!!

[Joethepauper]

Me too. I find it strange that we spent over $13 Trillion keeping communism at bay, and when it finally goes away, we enjoy a decade of rampant greed and then it all crumbles..­...and we adopt 'socialism'. We could have saved about $13 Trillion letting them do what they do and going-about our own business. Why did we spend so much money fighting what economists considered a failed economic model? Because it wasn't such a failed economic model afterall (it was being executed wrong {just like capitalism at the hands of our profiteers}). We had to spend all that money to keep a majority of the population poor and powerless. If everyone had a similar living standard, that means the rich would have a lot to lose. Who holds the power? The rich. Who makes the rules and structures society to benefit mostly themselves? The rich. Who outnumbers the rich and could easily overwhelm and overtake them? The poor (and middle class). Why don't we ever do anything about it? Because of some fictitious belief that we will someday be rich. Stop living that fantasy and start taking the power from the rich. Take your money out of corrupt banks and stop working for corrupt corporatio­ns.....tha­t's a start.

[RandVictims]

I wonder if Manson is now "Less of a Murder"...

[WorriedParent]

Succinctly beautiful!

[wordvarc]

'Capitalists' and 'socialists' are similar in their focus on material wealth.

Our democratic country was not founded on the worship of capital or material wealth but on individual freedom. A return to valuing most "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" would diminish both the radical 'capitalists' and their phantom 'socialist­s.'

Now, how to do that?

[RandVictims]

I fear a Ron Paul speech coming on....

[wordvarc]

Yes, well;
We're just trying to get the music and choreography together for the musical version...

[Zeebater]

Nuts. So wrong.
Individual freedom for the rich to get and be richer. Freedom from british taxes isn't a fight for freedom, it's a fight for capitalism. Lets not value happiness, just its pursuit, as though that bland life, liberty and pursuit of happiness isn't just fluff that no one can disagree with, since its just fluff. Phantom socialists? What the hell are they? Can't see them but they're there?
What a load. back that truck up.

Only those living under a rock still think that lawless capitalism isn't cruel and unusual punishment on the lower and middle class. That unfortunately is still about 50 million or so AmUrcans.

[Joethepauper]

Spending half of my entire waking life behind a cubicle, making someone who is already rich even richer, while I never seem to get ahead doesn't seem like I'm pursuing life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. I'm single, and my American dream was to travel, meet people all over the world, help people who are less fortunate, and see everything I wouldn't get to see if I got caught in the marriage trap. Bush pulled the ultimate c_ck-block. Now, I'll have to pretend not to be an American to 'hook-up' (or just to avoid being kidnapped or killed). In 2000, I went to Switzerland with some American friends. We were the life of the party and everyone was buying us drinks at the bars. Now, I can't go to Switzerland because the economy sucks so bad (with the devaluation of the dollar), and even if I could, I doubt the reception would be like it was in 2000. I'll have to work on my Australian accent to live my American dream, I guess. Thanks Bush, you singlehandedly killed this American's dream.

[wordvarc]

Hold onto your dreams.

[Clavis]

Now he can focus on developing his Jump to Conclusions Mat!

[RandVictims]

I'm a PEOPLE PERSON!!!!!!!

[youknowwhat]

When you have criminals at the helm of any type of economic system it's bound to fail. These are the kind of people we have running ours. These guys have paid off the politicians and the people in the regalatory system.

[Erdgeist]

Economic history says "capitalism" doesn't work and never will. In fact, what made the U.S. great was Hamilton's and Clay's reformulated mercantilist model a fact not often taught in our major universities—and certainly unknown by the Wall Street robber barons and the Republicans. Let me add that Hamilton and Clay's model is alive and well in Germany, Japan, and China just to name a few countries.