The lead story in the Wall Street Journal this morning bears the headline “Financiers Switch to GOP,” and quotes a Wall Street lobbyist saying, “Hedge funds bankrolled the Democrats in the 2006 and 2008 elections, and the very people they helped put in power turned around and screwed them.”
Just what did they think a large Democratic majority and a radical president would do to them? Are Wall Street hedge-fund managers even dumber than industrial CEOs? At least the big industrial companies (like GE) can expect some old-fashioned rent-seeking benefits from Washington.
Then there’s this gem:
“I am sure, if we are really nice and stay quiet, everything will be alright and the president will become more centrist and that all his tough talk is just words,” Mr. Loeb wrote in an email about four months ago expressing frustration with the president’s posture toward Wall Street. “I mean, he really loves us and when he beats us, he doesn’t mean it.”
Loeb, founder of a hedge fund called Third Point, raised $200,000 for Obama in 2008. I say he should have his taxes raised.