August 31, 2010: Wall Street Hedge Fund Manager: Obama’s Plan to Tax Equity Industry Akin to Hitler’s Invasion of Poland

Stephen Schwarzman. [Source: Time magazine]Stephen Schwarzman, one of Wall Street’s leading hedge fund managers, equates the Obama administration’s plan to levy taxes on the private equity industry as akin to Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland, London’s Daily Telegraph reports. Schwarzman says America faces a “crisis of leadership” that is hindering the nation’s economic recovery. His concerns are echoed by Daniel Loeb, the founder of the Third Point fund, who accuses the Obama administration of attempting to implement economic “redistribution rather than growth.” Loeb decries an April 2010 lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs as “politically laced,” and blames the lawsuit for making investors lose confidence in the economic recovery. Loeb says that “so long as our leaders tell us that we must trust [them] to regulate and redistribute our way back to prosperity, we will not break out of this economic quagmire.” [Daily Telegraph, 8/31/2010]