Chanos and Gross versus Paulson and Bloomberg

Here’s Jim Chanos on the demonstrations on Wall Street which express the anti-bailout sentiments expressed by both the Tea Party and #OccupyWallStreet:

“New York is so finance-centric that people here underappreciate the reaction of the rest of the country,” Chanos, who was born in Milwaukee, said yesterday in an interview in New York. “People are angry, they feel the game is rigged, that they didn’t get their fair shake.”

Bill Gross:

“Class warfare by the 99%? Of course, they’re fighting back after 30 years of being shot at,” Gross said on a Twitter post.

Vikram Pandit:

Vikram Pandit, Citigroup’s chief executive officer, said he would be happy to talk with protesters, calling their sentiments “completely understandable.”

“Trust has been broken between financial institutions and the citizens of the U.S., and that is Wall Street’s job, to reach out to Main Street and rebuild that trust,” Pandit, 54, said today at a breakfast organized by Fortune magazine in New York.

Here’s John Paulson on the same subject:

“Paulson & Co. and its employees have paid hundreds of millions in New York City and New York State taxes in recent years and have created over 100 high paying jobs in New York City since its formation,” the $30 billion hedge fund said yesterday in a statement. “Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses, we should be supporting them and encouraging them to remain in New York City and continue to grow.”

And Mayor Michael Bloomberg (not mentioned in the Bloomberg Business Week article where the above quotes come from):

“The bottom line is – people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we’ll allow them to,” said Bloomberg as he prepared to march in the Columbus Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. “If they break the laws, then, we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do: enforce the laws.”

Separately, the Mayor also was quoted by the Guardian:

In his weekly radio show, Bloomberg said the protests against the city’s financial services were "not productive" given the importance of the sector to the local economy.

"What they’re trying to do is take the jobs away from people working in this city," he said.

"If the jobs they are trying to get rid of in this city – the people that work in finance, which is a big part of our economy – go away, we’re not going to have any money to pay our municipal employees or clean our parks or anything else."

Sources:

• Chanos, Gross Understand Wall Street Protest Paulson Rejects – Bloomberg Business Week
• Michael Bloomberg: Occupy Wall Street is trying to destroy jobs – The Guardian
• Bloomberg: Occupy Wall Street Can Stay Indefinitely – WSJ