Macaskill on markets: Wall Street and the Warren fear factor

Elizabeth Warren is showing a unique ability to get under the skin of Wall Street leaders as the US presidential election season heats up.

It took a heart of stone not to laugh at the sight of grizzled Wall Street veteran Leon Cooperman choking up on cable TV recently as he condemned Warren’s proposal to introduce a wealth tax in the US.

When asked why he was becoming so emotional, the fund manager and former Goldman Sachs partner replied: “I care, that’s it.” 

He then repeated his prediction that the election of Warren as the next president would lead to a 25% drop in equity prices, in a reminder that anyone who has worked as a Wall Street analyst – which is where Cooperman got his start at Goldman – will find it tough to shake a habit of making bizarrely specific forecasts about the impact of future events.

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