Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman: I believe in the capitalist system

Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman wasn’t always rich.

The Omega Family Office chairman/CEO was born to working-class Polish immigrants and grew up in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City’s South Bronx neighborhood. His father was a plumber.

“I’m the first generation in my family born in America, first generation to go to college,” Cooperman, 77, said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday night.

“All of my education is public-school-based.”

He graduated from Hunter College, a public college that is part of the City College of New York, and went to Columbia Business School, thanks to a National Defense Act student loan. He got his MBA in 1967 and landed his first job at Goldman Sachs.

“I started my career on Wall Street with a 6-month-old kid [and] a negative net worth because I had student loans and no money in the bank,” Cooperman said.

After 25 years, he left Goldman Sachs and in 1991 started his own hedge fund, Omega Advisors.

In 2018, he converted it into a family office, saying he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life chasing the S&P 500. The year prior, Omega Advisors agreed to a $4.9 million settlement with the SEC after allegations of insider trading. Omega admitted to no wrongdoing.

These days, Cooperman has a net worth of $2.5 billion, according to Forbes. He also said he cast his vote for former Vice President Joe Biden for president.

“I’m voting my values, not my pocketbook,” said Cooperman, noting that he’d become richer if President Donald Trump wins reelection and would become poorer if Biden wins. A day after Election Day, the race is still up in the air.

Cooperman is also committed to giving a lot of his money away. In 2020, he signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment by wealthy philanthropists to donate a majority of their wealth to charity. The pledge was organized by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

“I made a lot of money, I’m giving it away,” Cooperman said.

“That’s the American Dream,” he added. “I want to give others the opportunity to live the American Dream.”

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[pineslife]

This guy cries today 1/28/2021 about the same process.

[trbd]

Cooperman: i wanna give people an opportunity to achieve what i achieved
People: **achieved a fraction of what he achieved**
Cooperman: wait no i didnt mean that

[samuelbaugh]

Oh boy this aged poorly. It’s as if they position themselves as another class of human being, and say or do anything they want to keep it that way.

[AcmePotatoPackingPocatello]

..44 million u.s. workers working fulltime make less than $18, 000 yearly.
This dude was a poverty wage king... and still is
The book PSYCOPATHIC EPIDEMIC spells this guys beliefs perfectly

[herrgable]

He does NOT believe in capitalism, be believes in corporate socialism. Get bent.

[toniotonio]

And this guy is crying now because ppl can invest in Wall street hahahaha

[RostislavLuk]

you believed and now you will get it
. Just don't cry when they come for you.

[Yomamaissoo]

I am glad he did not cry this time hahaha

[jasontheworldisyours]

Same that's why I'm a long term Investor

[vinh]

lets get airlines to give back those bailouts

[ErikS-]

Why is it that its almost always people of the jewish faith that are ultra rich and are fund manager,

And please note that I do NOT have anything against the jewish faith!!
It is merely the relationship that I see between “rich” & “jewish faith”

[Lwellj]

What did the country think was going to happen when we shipped manufacturing overseas....

[freudba]

You want the system that works for you or regulations that works only for you

[adriansegura]

I believe in i voted for biden . Wtf ??? How is biden going to gives us the same opportunity you had . ??? This billionaire has gone stupid

[sinrgy]

Why wouldn't a billionaire believe in a capitalist system? Why don't you ask poor people if they believe? This is such useless commentary.

[MrSupergibs]

How the American Dream has changed.... it used to be that American Dream was a dream because it was achievable only in the USA to earn a decent income and have a good family life (middle class); anything above that was like winning the lottery (not that billionaires don't deserve their hard earned wealth), but it appears the dream has changed and so the middle class has disappeared.

[HobbiesRfun]

He believes in crony capitalism, not the capitalist system our founding fathers set up, that was supposed to be fair, and provide equal opportunity for the small fish to have a chance to prosper along with the big fish.

The system he supports, which we have now, is the small fish are put in traps by the government, which gives the big fish the ability to freely devour the little fish, without the little fish being able to get away, or band together, and fight back.

[izzuddinmnasir]

"American dream" but reality is now

[Sciscaaa]

This whole reddit attack is antisemitic!

[teebone]

This is probably the worst title for a video I've ever seen LOL