Free Republic

The boss of a successful US hedge fund has quit the industry with an extraordinary farewell letter dismissing his rivals as over-privileged "idiots" and thanking "stupid" traders for making him rich. Andrew Lahde's $80m Los Angeles-based firm Lahde Capital Management in Los Angeles made a huge return last year by betting against subprime mortgages. "The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking," he wrote. "These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies...

According to Michelle Obama, “The truth is, in order to get things like Universal Health Care and a revamped Education System, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of the pie so that someone else can have more.” Oh, really? Who is the someone who gives up a piece of the pie? On October, 15,2008, Michelle Obama spent $447.39 on room service (for 2) at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for an afternoon snack of Lobster Hors D’Oeuvres ($50.00), Whole Steamed Lobsters (100.00), Iranian Osetra Caviar ($150.00), and Bollinger Champagne ($44.00) See the Michelle Obama wealth redistribution quote...

What happened to the Democratic Party? Just a few generations ago, the party of Franklin Roosevelt went to bat for the little guy, the common man, the everyday Joe the plumber. Not anymore. Now, the wealthy elites who run the Democratic Party have declared war on working-class Americans while pretending to defend them against greedy and heartless Republicans. Those would be the same Republicans whose vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, doesn't just talk about working-class people but actually embodies one and yet has been savaged by liberals. And those would be the same Republicans who have devised a tax plan...

So what do "the rich" pay in federal income taxes? Nothing, right? That, at least, is what most people think. And Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wants to raise the top marginal rate for "the rich" - known in some quarters as "job creators." A recent poll commissioned by Investor's Business Daily asked, in effect, "What share do you think the rich pay?" Their findings? Most people are completely clueless about how much the rich actually do pay. First, the data. The top 5 percent (those making more than $153,542 - the group whose taxes Mr. Obama seeks to raise)...

THOUGH he's battling GOP accusations that he's an Ivy League elitist, Barack Obama has a lifestyle of the rich and famous, like TV show host Robin Leach, who always signed off, "Champagne wishes and caviar dreams!"

October 13, 2008, 5:03 pm The Rich Support McCain, the Super-Rich Support Obama In Richistan, I wrote about a new political divide emerging among the wealthy. While most Lower Richistani’s ($1 million to $10 million in net worth) were voting Republican, most Middle-and Upper Richistanis (those worth $10 million plus and $100 million plus) were voting Democrat. Lower Richistanis tended to vote almost exclusively based on taxes. But Upper Richistanis placed a higher priority on longer-term societal issues like health care, the environment and education, which are traditional Democrat issues. Some say Upper Richistanis can afford to minimize taxes, since...

President Abraham Lincoln said it succinctly. It is true, he said, that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time. One thing is clear and constant. There has been a lot of rhetoric thrown around about which political party represents “rich” people and which is the party that is not representative of the “rich.” That’s a subject that’s repeated so often it may be difficult for the average South Carolinian to grasp what it’s all about....

WASILLA, Alaska - Sarah Palin and her husband have pieced together a uniquely Alaskan income that reached comfortably into six figures even before she became governor, capitalizing on valuable fishing rights, a series of land deals and a patchwork of other ventures to build an above-average lifestyle.

The Zogby results are shocking – especially compared to the entire U.S. population (now about 303,116,000). The numbers below are for households, not individuals. • 1.6 million U.S. households already decided to move offshore and are headed in that direction. • Another 1.8 million households are seriously considering moving and are likely to do it. Many have taken preliminary steps. • 7.7 million households are “somewhat seriously” considering moving and “may” do it. • Nearly 3 million households are seriously considering buying a vacation home or other property outside the United States. Another 10 million are “somewhat” seriously considering it....

Washington Mutual Inc.'s new CEO, Alan Fishman, will be eligible for at least $12.65 million or more in salary and bonuses next year, the company said Thursday in a securities filing. Fishman, who replaced Kerry Killinger as CEO on Monday, also received a $7.5 million signing bonus for joining the company, according to a regulatory filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under his employment agreement, Fishman will receive a base salary of $1 million, a target bonus of up to $3.65 million and a long-term incentive award starting in 2009 of at least $8 million. In addition, he...

How much will he make this year? Question/Comment: Last year Lehman Brothers' CEO Richard Fuld, Jr. made $71 million. Today his company collapsed. How much will he make this year? Paul Solman: I don't know about this year. You've covered last. In 2006, according to Forbes.com, he was the 5th highest-paid CEO in America: "Total Compensation $122.67 mil; 5-Year Compensation Total $375.81 mil."

The sense is visceral among many Democrats that when John McCain expressed confidence in the "fundamentals" of the economy to start the week, he returned the focus of the presidential race to a fundamental issue that will benefit Barack Obama. The Democrat's chief strategist, David Axelrod, certainly thinks so; chatting with reporters today, he said the campaign had been "blasted" back to first principles -- pocketbook concerns. But where was Obama headed after landing in Burbank? To Beverly Hills, for a couple of off-the-charts, star-studded fundraisers (including one headlined by Barbra Streisand).

Daniel Gross reports: … the poll for the House vote in the East showed that the 25 percent of the electorate making over $100,000 went big for Democrats overall, 57-42, compared with a 49-48 margin in 2004. In 2006, those making between $150,000 and $200,000 voted for Democratic candidates by a whopping 63-37 majority, and those making more than $200,000 went Democratic by a slim 50-48 margin. That’s a huge shift from 2004, when Republicans took the $150,000 to $200,000 demographic 50-48 and rang up a huge victory among the over $200,000 set: 56-40. In 2006, Democratic candidates racked up...

Obama wants to be generous to poor people in Africa - with YOUR money, while his own half brother lives on $12 a YEAR. He is very stingy with his own. Despite making well over $1,000,000 in family income from 2000 to 2004, the Obamas listed less than $11,000 in charitable contributions for all five years combinedClick here for proof If you think the Obamas just didn't want to claim their legal deductions, they had no problem in 2005 and 2006. Also note that the year Obama became senator his income jumped 700% from $200,000 to over $1.6 MILLION. No...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- More than $2 million -- that's what the United Way of the Central Carolinas has agreed to pay into the retirement plan of its chief executive officer. The payments are spelled out in tax returns known as the IRS form 990, filed annually by non-profit agencies like the United Way and available to the public. The returns show the local United Way agency has already paid more than $1 million into the employee benefit plan of CEO Gloria Pace King. Board members tell WCNC they've committed to pay more than $1 million more over the next three...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, acting as a surrogate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain during the Democratic convention, was ready for the question at a lunch with reporters Tuesday. Amid all the controversy over McCain not knowing how many homes he owns personally, the multi-millionaire Romney was asked during the lunch how many homes he himself owns. “One less than John Kerry,” Romney quipped, referring to the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, the junior Massachusetts senator who is married to Teresa Heinz of the Heinz food fortune. That would mean Romney owns four homes. Asked whether the fact that...

BURBANK, California (Reuters) - John McCain, who often invokes his ordeal as a Vietnam war prisoner to show his devotion to his country as he runs for U.S. president, drew on the experience again on Monday -- this time to deflect sniping over the number of houses he owns. McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama last week accused the Republican senator of being out of touch with ordinary people after he was unable to say in an interview how many houses were owned by him and his wife Cindy, a wealthy heiress to a beer distributorship. In an appearance on the...

"We're delighted to have a real estate debate with Barack Obama," said spokesman Brian Rogers, adding that the press should focus on Obama's house. "It's a frickin' mansion. He doesn't tell people that. You have a mansion you bought in a shady deal with a convicted felon." The felon reference was to Tony Rezko, a former Obama friend and financial backer who was convicted on fraud and bribery charges this year. Rogers vowed to intensify efforts to link Obama to Rezko in the coming days.

The social calendar is still a whirl of glamorous lawn parties, wine tastings, gallery openings, beach get-togethers and gala benefits in the Hamptons, the summer playground for the millionaire Learjet Set. But down at Town Hall, the local government could use a handout.

Gore Hits the Waves with a Massive New Houseboat Former Vice President Al Gore, the Nobel-winning self-proclaimed global prophet of green, has made a lot of money from the so-called “crisis” of global warming. He has profited from best-selling books that tout the looming climatic catastrophe, won an Academy Award for a movie about his slideshow presentation that focuses on his “sky is falling” message about a world on the brink of environmental disaster. His business interests have been focused on the profit side of the equation when it comes to “global warming,” creating a “carbon credits” program that has...