Оглавление
Teitelbaum Richard. The Most Dangerous Trade
Preface
Chapter 1. Ackman: The Activist Grandstander
Chapter 2. Asensio: Exile on Third Avenue
Chapter 3. Chanos: Connoisseur of Chaos
Chapter 4. Einhorn: Contrarian at the Gates
Chapter 5. Block: Playing the China Hand
Chapter 6. Fleckenstein: Strategies and Tactics
Chapter 7. Kass: Nader's Raider Hits the Street
Chapter 8. Tice: Truth Squad Leader
Chapter 9. Pellegrini: Behind the Great Subprime Bet
Chapter 10. Cohodes: Force of Nature, Market Casualty
About the Author
Index
Отрывок из книги
At its crux, short selling is about failure. Things break down. Whereas most of mankind basks in a natural optimism, there are those who navigate the darker side of events – the miscalculations, fraud, and follies that spur us onward toward disaster. Catastrophe's natural handmaidens are greed and, yes, plain evil.
The natural state of a collapsing universe is the breaking down of order. Short sellers understand this and seek to profit from it.
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Federal investigators reportedly began looking into whether people hired by Pershing Square made false statements about Herbalife to regulators. The nutrition company, for its part, has been investigated by both the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission. While Ackman's short campaign against Herbalife remains a work in progress, it speaks emphatically to the dynamics of a financial system that seems to work relentlessly to punish those like Pershing Square that bet against stocks, rather than in favor of them. Ackman is no neophyte. In addition to MBIA, he has made successful wagers against the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., or Farmer Mac, which makes loans to agricultural enterprises, as well as Realty Income, a real estate investment trust, and won big – at least as far as public documents can confirm.
Yet the vitriol heaped upon Ackman and his creed speaks volumes about the powerful forces that are aligned to defend even the most problematic companies – often helped as they are by a coterie of high-priced lawyers, like lobbyist Lanny Davis and Marty Lipton of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and public relations powerhouses like Michael Sitrick's Sitrick and Company. It also shows a marked preference by many, though certainly not all, mainstream journalists to align themselves with established corporations rather than secretive Wall Street short sellers who can profit mightily when frauds are exposed. No matter that most so-called “dedicated” short sellers, those who, unlike Ackman, bet exclusively against stocks, seem inevitably to crash during extended bull markets.
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