Why Wall Street Hates Obama

This is not the first time

At the CNBC Delivering Alpha conference the other day, hedge fund managers were there to give their best ideas, have some good food, network with other hedge-funders and talk about a variety of issues pertaining to the world economy. Many of them had different views on how to fix the economy, but almost all of them shared one view: a deep hatred of President Obama. After speaking with some of them, it is not a personal hatred for the man, but his policies. They see his policies as not supporting growth in this country, and there are too many regulatory issues being thrown from the Obama administration too fast. Ones that I talked to cited Obamacare, and Dodd-Frank as among the most egregious policy initiatives taken on by President Obama. They see him for what he was: a community organizer, and not a leader. Most of them realize that taxes need to be raised. In fact, in what I found surprising was that nearly two to one in the room wanted a mixture of spending cuts and tax raises as a way to pay down the debt. The room included press, those attending the conference, and the speakers themselves. Many of them do not want to receive Social Security, and have it help pay down debt. Yet it does not seem like the Democrats will touch entitlement spending to help pay our massive unfunded liabilities. One of the conference attendees, who asked to remain anonymous, said that he would "spend whatever it took to get Obama out of office." Another one of the panelists at the conference said that he had ideas about how to solve the U.S. housing crisis, but he did not want to share it with the Obama administration. They all blame Obama and his administration, as well as Congress for not inspiring confidence in the American public. Confidence is what is needed to avoid another recession, and right now, the country severely lacks any kind of confidence. This morning we saw the University of Michigan release consumer sentiment and it came in slightly better than expected, but it is still at severely depressed levels. Many of the attendees are Republican, but they do not want Rick Perry either. Leon Cooperman, of Omega Advisors, said that if Perry were to win the nomination over Mitt Romney, he would not vote. He said that a no vote for Perry is a vote for Obama, and Wall Street does not want that. Yes, a lot of Obama's policies are putting a crimp into some of their lifestyles, particularly Dodd-Frank. Yet, these people truly want to see American economy come back because not only will it benefit all of us, it will benefit them. Make no mistake about it. These men and women who attended the conference were there to make money. Lots of it. To them, Obama is not only hampering their ability to make money, he is hampering the American way.