Al Gore's Wealth in the Balance
Yesterday, Drudge linked to an article reporting that Al Gore and a few other investors were going to create a socially responsible investment firm. Essentially, they will invest in companies that they expect will provide a good return on investment, BUT are also good environmental stewards, employee-friendly, and respectful of social norms.
My jaw dropped when I read this because Al Gore, among other things, appears to be the most incompetent investor on the face of the earth. After I read the article, I immediately recalled another article that I read back in 1998 in Fortune Magazine. Here is an excerpt from that article, authored by Christopher Ogden and entitled 'Al Gore's Wealth in the Balance':
"[Al Gore] turns out to be one of the nation's few high-income earners who has failed to profit from the bull market. According to Gore aides and official disclosure records released in May, which give a range of income and assets, the Vice President is not the beneficiary of a family trust, has no blind trust, no stocks - not even mutual funds - and has earned no dividends since taking office. His net worth has been dropping for years.
It gets better...
"Gore has no savings or investment plan. He has IRAs worth less than $15,000 total and a government pension, but what money he has is either in checking and passbook accounts (his earned interest last year totaled $510) or tied up in property.
"Could Gore have some sort of holier-than-thou hangup about investing, a fear that if he or even a blind-trust guardian bought an equity, somehow a conflict-of-interest accusation might be leveled? Gore's aides brush aside such a notion. It's just that Gore, for whatever reason, is content to live from paycheck to biweekly paycheck.
"Republican critics who charge Gore with being overly generous with other people's money should rest assured that he doesn't have a clue what to do with his own."
Folks, if you value your money, if you want to stay financially independent, STAY AWAY from the Internet Inventor and his new investment firm.
Hat tip to Mike Walsh for retrieving the Fortune article (which, unfortunately, is not available on the magazine's website).
Posted at Andrew Roth at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
