Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman is getting mocked on social media after complaining on CNBC Thursday that Americans wanting to get their fair share is “bullshit.”
Cooperman runs Omega Advisors. He reportedly is the majority owner of the investment firm and is said to be worth approximately $3.2 billion.
“The reason the market is doing what it’s doing is people are sitting at home, getting their checks from the government,” he told CNBC, according to a widely-circulated clip on Twitter.
“This fair share is a bullshit concept,” he also says in the clip. “It’s just a way of attacking wealthy people, and, you know, I think it’s inappropriate – we all got to work together and pull together.”
Cooperman appeared to be discussing the move by the trading platform RobinHood to stop investors from trading on Gamestop, after grassroots investment activists organizing on Reddit propelled the company’s worth from $2 billion to $24 billion on Wednesday.
Americans are suffering historic unemployment, illness and death, given the coronavirus pandemic that’s spiraling out of control, while the stock markets are reaching new heights on a regular basis. The phrase, “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” is an apt description of the state of Americans’ financial health.
Social media users were not amused.