Associated Press-Democrat John Edwards said Tuesday that he worked for a hedge fund between presidential campaigns to learn about financial markets and their relationship to poverty – and to makemoney too.<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Associated Press, the former North Carolina senator said his yearlong, part-time position with Fortress Investment Group helped his understanding of the connection but he has more to learn. Edwards has made eradicating poverty a focus of his second White House bid.<\/p>\n
Edwards, a multimillionaire after years as a trial lawyer, would not disclose how much he got paid for a year of consulting beginning in October 2005. He said the amount will be revealed when he releases his financial disclosure forms due May 15.<\/p>\n
Asked if he had to join a hedge fund to learn about financial markets, Edwards replied, “How else would I have done it?”<\/p>\n
He said he considered going to an investment firm such as Goldman Sachs, but Fortress was the most natural fit. Presented with the suggestion that he could have taken a university class instead, he said, “That’s true.”<\/p>\n
“It was primarily to learn, but making money was a good thing, too,” the 2004 vice presidential nominee said in an hourlong interview with AP reporters and editors.<\/p>\n
Hedge funds, now numbering more than 9,000 in the U.S. with assets estimated to exceed $1 trillion, traditionally cater to the rich, as well as pension funds and university endowments, but are increasingly luring less wealthy investors.<\/p>\n