Billionaire hedge fund operator Leon Cooperman inspired many Twitter users to take up a musical instrument on Thursday: the really tiny violin.
Cooperman appeared on CNBC to discuss how Reddit users are buying up shares of GameStop to troll Wall Street traders like, well, Cooperman.
He predicted things would end badly. Very badly for the trolling traders.
“I’m not damning them. I’m just saying from my experience, this will end in tears,” Cooperman said. “GameStop is not worth $500, not worth $400, not worth $300, not worth $200, not even worth $100, not even worth $50.”
After a pair of professional investment firms placed big bets that the money-losing video game retailer’s stock would crash, a group of smaller investors have been buying up shares to support the company and beat back the professionals, according to The Associated Press.
Cooperman blamed the phoenix-like rise of GameStop stock on a variety of factors including “people [who] are sitting at home, getting their checks from the government, basically trading for no commissions and no interest rates.”
But what really set off Cooperman was the idea that billionaires like him aren’t paying their “fair share” in taxes.
“I hate that expression with a passion!” Cooperman said. “What does fair share mean? … I’m willing to work six months a year for the government, and six months for myself — which means a marginal tax rate of 50%. If you live in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, you’re already well past that. This fair share is a bullshit concept! It’s just a way of attacking wealthy people.”
Since Cooperman was charged with insider trading in 2016 (and eventually paid $4.9 million in fines without admitting guilt), and undoubtedly benefited from Donald Trump’s massive 2017 tax cut for the wealthy, Twitter users weren’t sympathetic.