Edwards defends working for hedge fund

[Amianthus]

Tuesday, May 08, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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.

He said the amount he was paid will be revealed when he releases his financial disclosure forms.

Fortress Investment Group, founded in 1998, describes itself as "a leading global alternative asset manager" with approximately $35.1 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2006. The company is headquartered in New York with affiliates around the world.

Edwards said it's legitimate to ask questions about whether there is a contradiction between campaigning against poverty while working for a hedge fund that is designed to make rich people richer. He said the job was a compliment to his position as the head of a poverty center at the University of North Carolina.
Article

[Plane]

More people get rich , fewer of the total are poor.

How simple can it be?

[Amianthus]

More people get rich , fewer of the total are poor.

Yeah, but hedge funds are only for people who are already rich. Most of them have minimum buy-ins of $5million or better.

[BT]

Generation Investment Management is a London-based investment firm and hedge fund that aims to tap growing demand for an investment style that blends traditional equity research with a focus on other factors such as social and environmental responsibility and corporate governance.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is chairman of GIM, with David Blood — previously chief executive of Goldman Sachs Asset Management — as managing partner. This pair have given the company its nickname, "Blood and Gore".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Investment_Management

[sirs]

"Democrat John Edwards said Tuesday that he worked for a hedge fund between presidential campaigns to learn about financial markets and their relationship to poverty," the Associated Press reports. You almost have to admire someone who says something so patently untrue and is so brazen about it:

He said he considered going to an investment firm such as Goldman Sachs, but Fortress was the most natural fit. Presented with the suggestion that he could have taken a university class instead, he said, "That's true." . . .

Edwards said it's fair to ask questions about whether there is a contradiction between campaigning against poverty while working for a hedge fund designed to make rich people richer. But he said the job was a complement to his position as the head of a poverty center at the University of North Carolina, something he said he didn't describe adequately when asked about the hedge fund during the first Democratic debate last month.

Nowhere in the dispatch does Edwards explain what his hedge-fund work taught him about poverty. Reader Robert Paci notes:

I work in the hedge-fund industry and have yet to learn anything about poverty from the experience. In fact, I went into the into the field to avoid poverty. I think almost everyone in the industry sees it my way. Maybe Edwards knows something we don't.

Trimming the Hedges

[Plane]

""""I went into the into the field to avoid poverty."""



Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa!


But seriously , what would it harm to learn more about money and get some too?

Edwards did not impoverish anyone with this move.

On the other hand he could spend a bit of time in the Grameen Bank and learn about small scale money if he wanted to know more about application of cash to povertys problems.

http://www.grameenfoundation.org