Dr. Michael Burry 2012 UCLA Economics Commencement Address

jmski52

I apologize if someone has already linked this. It's definitely worth the 21 minutes.

Dr. Michael Burry, founder of Scion Capital, billionaire from shorting PIIGS

bronco2078

I watched that yesterday it is a good clip definitely worth watching

KUCH

Thanks for posting.

streeter

You notice how he(speaker) casually boasts of his risk taking that in retrospective seems a no brainer.

He says nothing about what these 21 yr olds should be looking forward to except a U.S. of declining standards.

UCLA Econ School(not speaker) predicted a V shaped recession in 2009 and a rapidly expanding economy for 3rd Qtr 2010. I framed the forecast in my office.

I will agree with one thing he hinted at. "The social environment in the capital " read-- lobbyists/government employees/near do well hangers on....view their separate activities of making money differently than the rest of America. I'm reading between the lines somewhat on that paraphrase but if that is what I think it is...he's calling for an OVERHALL!

All i can think of is........Have a happy first decade out of school graduates. Some of you are quickly going to understand that the next 10 years can make you wealthy beyond your wildest dreams just by being a vulture and picking up the pieces of the shattered dreams of American citizens and those around the world. And their depreciating assets that they need to divest of. You better get to work, we only have 10-15 years of deleveraging.

jmski52

He says nothing about what these 21 yr olds should be looking forward to except a U.S. of declining standards.

Some of you are quickly going to understand that the next 10 years can make you wealthy beyond your wildest dreams just by being a vulture and picking up the pieces of the shattered dreams of American citizens and those around the world. And their depreciating assets that they need to divest of. You better get to work, we only have 10-15 years of deleveraging.

The fact that this guy became a multibillionaire by going short against the government's idiotic policies shouldn't necessarily be construed that he wants to watch the American system self-destruct so that he can make money on the deal. It's a bit unfair to presume that making money from your convictions that things are already very wrong puts you in the classification of vulture.

I'll have to listen to his statements again in this light, but my take on the address is that he is making an honest attempt to nudge these new grads away from the status quo in Washington DC, which is A-OK in my book. Just my opinion.

streeter

JM,

I agree, in fact picking up the pieces of the shattered American dream provides a softer landing for those who got caught in this mess. I got caught in the 90-94 mess and while I should have known better....I said to myself...NEVER AGAIN.
There is still a lot to pick up out there. Almost 50% of the 4.4 million people in RIVERSIDE/SAN BERNARDINO counties are under water in their mortgage.

I was listening half heartedly to this guy while eating and I personally hold very few good opinions of UCLA, I did donate 21 minutes of my time to the baby bruin graduate.

IMO worst time to graduate college in the last 100 years.

streeter

UCLA SCHOOL? OF ECONOMICS....pleeeeze

If there is one thing I admire about Westwood

it's the type of animal that first comes from the right of your screen at 0:11 and is in full view at 0:24

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8KbOxAOPFY

of course, I'm link challenged

jmski52

I'd enroll.

pf70collector

So where is the mutual fund that bets against the American Dream? I would like to invest in it? I don't think one exists exept in the deratative markets.

What kind of bizzaro warped captialism are we creating when you can profit from collapse based on a Casino Bet?

jmski52

If you short Apple or GE, that is what they would say you are doing - shorting the American Dream. Of course that is utter nonsense.