Democratic presidential contender John Edwards has investing ties to subprime lenders who are foreclosing on victims of Katrina, according to a report published Friday.
The Wall Street Journal said there are 34 homes in New Orleans that face foreclosure from the subprime unit of Fortress Investment Group. Edwards has about $16 million in Fortress (Charts), a hedge fund and private equity manager, the newspaper said.
Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, has been a vocal critic of subprime lenders and told the Journal that he would assist homeowners in New Orleans who face foreclosure from businesses linked to Fortress or who have already lost their homes.
“I intend to help these people,” he told the newspaper. The report also said he would divest any Fortress funds in his portfolio that are invested in subprime lenders that filed the foreclosures. “I will not have my family’s money invested in these firms,” the Journal quoted him as saying.
I’m pretty annoyed at this “divestment” scam. So, you sell your holdings for market value, probably making a profit. Or you take a small loss (or less of a profit) for selling them quickly. You have not changed anything. You’ve just exchanged $16 million in holdings for $16 million in cash. What has this accomplished?
Supposedly doing this retroactively undoes Edwards’ insufferable hypocrisy.
Whatev’s. If he wants to atone, instead of just cashing out his $16 million, he should give it all to the people whose homes he’s trying to take from them.
I do not know about you, but I am getting a bit tired of Edwards’ hypocrisy. I defended him in the past, with his $400 haircut, but the more I read about him, the I get the feeling that he is just a hypocritical populist. He is trying to persuade John Doe that he is just like him, that there is class battle or war even going on in America and that he is on the side of the poor (masses), but the more journalists dig, the more proof they find that the opposite is true.
Besides, there is not a class war going on at all. Equality, as meant in the US Constitution, stands for equality in God’s eyes, and equality for the law. Not equality of condition. It is time that Edwards and his followers understand this.
H/t reader Mike Corbin, cross posted at The Gazette.
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