Rich Guys: We're Not the Bad Guys, You Imbecile

The business story grabbing most of the buzz today is unquestionably a Bloomberg piece by Max Abelson in which he rounds up quotes from various rich bigwigs on how they feel about being vilified as the evil 1%. Answer: They do not like it one bit. Some of the juicy quotes:

• John A. Allison, BB&T: "Instead of an attack on the 1%, let’s call it an attack on the very productive. This attack is destructive."
• Bernard Marcus, Home Depot co-founder: Asking about being a target of protesters: "Who gives a crap about some imbecile? Are you kidding me?"
• Ken Langone, another Home Depot co-founder: "I am a fat cat, I'm not ashamed. If you mean by fat cat that I’ve succeeded, yeah, then I’m a fat cat. I stand guilty of being a fat cat."

• Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan: "Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and because you’re rich you’re bad, I don’t understand it. Sometimes there’s a bad apple, yet we denigrate the whole."
• Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone Group: Asked about paying more taxes, he noted that some lower-income families pay no income taxes: "You have to have skin in the game. I’m not saying how much people should do. But we should all be part of the system."

Click to find out who will "vomit" if he has to "hear a politician use the term 'paying your fair share' one more time." (More income inequality stories.)