What Do A PhD Economist and A Turkey Bacon Salesman Have in Common?

What do a PhD economist and a turkey bacon salesman have in common? They both want to prevent democrats from closing a hedge fund tax loophole. Let us explain.

Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, used to sell turkey bacon. He doesn’t call himself a “turkey bacon salesman” anymore but for some obscure reason he doesn’t mind calling super-rich hedge fund manager Cliff Asness an “economist”. Sure, Cliff Asness has a PhD degree in finance from University of Chicago but he doesn’t define himself as an economist. Here is what he said in a letter criticizing Obama:

“I run an approximately twenty billion dollar money management firm that offers hedge funds as well as public mutual funds and unhedged traditional investments.”

Cliff Asness isn’t an economist- he is a hedge fund manager with a $500 Million fortune who wants to keep paying a 15% income tax while other taxpayers pay 35%. We don’t like big governments and we don’t trust politicians. We also don’t like paying a larger share of our income in taxes than hedge fund managers who make billions of dollars. The top 25 hedge fund managers made more than $22 Billion in 2010. These people avoided more than $4 Billion in taxes because of the loophole Asness is lobbying Paul Ryan to keep.