Tuesday, July 10, 2012

John Paulson...rapidly going back from whence he came

Before he made his multi-billion dollar score on that totally rigged subprime bet, John Paulson was an aging, unknown, money manager with nothing more than a little pittance of money under management. Now it appears he is wasting no time going back there.

Back in April I wrote about Paulson's disastrous and highly misinformed "post-rigged-bet" market exploits, like buying gold because he feared hyperinflation from Fed "money printing" or, shorting US Treasuries because he feared hyperinflation from Fed "money printing" (or US bankruptcy...who the hell knows?) or losing half a billion dollars in less than 24 hours on some crappy Chinese stock. All told, this market "genius" lost about 50% of his clients' money last year (which he called an aberration!) and he's adding to those losses as we speak.

It now can be revealed that he is down about another 8-percent in June alone on bets against the euro and European bonds.

Here was Paulson's rationale for this trade

“The plans announced at the end of June will prove insufficient in solving the structural problems of the euro zone,” Paulson wrote in the letter. “Like the passage of the Greek bailout plan in March, the plans’ impact on the markets will prove temporary and short-lived. These plans do not solve the productivity gap among euro-zone countries, current account deficits, government deficits, unemployment, and capital outflows.”

This is some of the most naive and unsophisticated "analysis" (and I am even making a stretch to use that term) I have ever heard. "Solve the productivity gap?" "Capital outflows?" Hilarious. No clue about the ECB buying bonds or supplying liquidity to banks. Basically just throwing around a bunch of buzzwords to hide his ignorance, while at the same time I can envision so many of these self important pension fund officials nodding their heads in agreement and believing that their Wonder Boy will get back on track and perform again as the market genius he really is. At least that's their hope. At the very least I'm sure they're thinking Paulson better do something soon because the pensioners who these guys represent have just lost a big chunk of their savings thanks to this guy.

Let us not forget, too, the fact that Paulson ripped into Occupy protesters last year for even suggesting that a guy like him shhould be taxed at a higher rate than, let's say, some secretary, because he...JOHN PAULSON...is a Job Creator who hired 100 people. That's right...100 people!! Do the math: he made a $20 BILLION profit and he hired 100 people. That breaks down to one hire for every $200 million in profit. Now THERE'S a job creator if I ever saw one!!

Bottom line...Paulson and others like him are more lucky than smart. The irony is, he could have saved himself and his clients a ton of money, billions in fact, if he took just five minutes a day to read Warren Mosler's FREE blog. Warren and MMT got everyting right...EVERYTHING. Or he could have read this blog, which I am sure he would never do. Too much arrogance. They're all the same, this crowd. They can only make money by cheating, by rigging the game. No wonder the public is fed up, but the public will continue to be powerless as long as these guys own the system, which they do.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Warren and MMT got everyting right...EVERYTHING. Or he could have read this blog, which I am sure he would never do. Too much arrogance."

If Warren is so much smarter than Paulson then why is Paulson the one with a billion dollars on the scoreboard?

Also Mike, how did your "no housing bubble" in 2006 turn out? I guess that's another thing you guys got "right", huh? Or how about the fact that Wray said the USA was in a "contained depression" in 1992 before the greatest economic boom in modern times? These are two of the worst economic calls in the history of economics.

paul meli said...

Guess we should make Bill Gates all-time President then. He has the most money, which makes him the smartest.

Warren is probably happier. He has hobbies 'n stuff.

"…in 1992 before the greatest economic boom in modern times?"

Didn't you mean to say greatest economic bubble?

Must be slow at the other websites today.

PeterP said...

"read Mosler's blog".

Mosler's blog is hideous - I mean the look, the layout, the colors, everything. Reeks of unprofessionalism and kookiness. For a newcomer it is hard to take anything there seriously. Too bad really, he should have the thing redesigned, how hard is that?

paul meli said...

"Mosler's blog is hideous…it is hard to take anything there seriously"

So, whether ideas should be taken seriously or not is based on the color scheme or the presentation, not the content?

How did the Bible ever become popular?

PeterP said...

paul,

I don't say that ideas "should" be taken seriously on this basis, but that they "are". Sad truth. Mosler should have a much better looking blog.

Bible? At the time it was one of the few books in circulation, much more impressive than an iPad3 ;)

paul meli said...

@PeterP

Yeah, there's a discussion going on related to this over at NEP in the comments on Dan K.'s post.

Some criticism being leveled at the MMT community for not presenting it in away that matters to the man-on-the-street.

I'm not sure that's a fair criticism, there's a lot of money and effort being spent on disseminating an economic narrative that convinces the public to act against it's own best interests.

Whenever I talk about this stuff with my friends/acquaintences I get funny looks and moments of silence with a roll-eyes.

"Everybody knows" we borrow money from China.

Look what is happening to the climate change message. TPTB have managed to convince the public that the big money and PR is on the side of the scientists.

George Soros has more money than Koch Industries.

How do you combat that if you don't own a big media empire?

Anyway, 95% of the websites are crappy looking. It isn't just MMT sites. Maybe there is a commenter around here that is also a webmaster.

PeterP said...

Paul,

"Whenever I talk about this stuff with my friends/acquaintences I get funny looks and moments of silence with a roll-eyes.

"Everybody knows" we borrow money from China."

Tell me about it! And: "so you know better than a Nobel laureate? Sheesh!"

Matt Franko said...

Warren's blog is WordPress it is the same app that is used on like 90% of all blogs... ?????

PeterP said...

bubleRefuge,

LOL, I wonder why they say MMT ppl are rude...

Matt,
Weird. I think it looks messy and cramped. I would by far prefer a billyblog look, or a NEP look (Mike Norman blog look is good too!) :)

Anonymous said...

Hayek von Pinochet http://coreyrobin.com/2012/07/08/hayek-von-pinochet/

y said...

This is Mosler's other economics blog:

http://www.mecpoc.org/

mike norman said...

Warren Mosler's fund III Investors, was the top ranked fund according to Managed Account Reports, for something like 10 years. At its peak, the fund has something like $5 billion in assets. Warren, personally, has made millions of dollars and started companies, funded schools and research centers. He may not be a billionaire, but he's done extremely well and never cheated like Paulson.