There’s a line from a 1977 punk rock song (“Isgodaman” by The Snivelling Sh*ts, 1977) that asks, “Would he really rather be Keith Richards given half a chance?” I don’t think I’d opt for that chance, but I wouldn’t mind being David Einhorn for awhile. He’s the legendary fund manager (Greenlight Capital) who famously identified the weaknesses at Lehman Brothers well over a year before the collapse of that storied firm. What makes him fascinating to me is that he also finished 18th in the World Series of Poker in 2006, donating his entire winnings to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
David Einhorn
He continues to identify weaknesses and put his money where is mouth is. Last year, he began accumulating physical gold in anticipation of the sovereign debt crises that we’re just starting to see unfold (Einhorn bets on major currency ‘death spiral’.).
This month, I’d like to draw your attention to Einhorn’s recent Op-Ed in the New York Times, Easy Money, Hard Truths. In it, Einhorn highlights many of the problems I’ve been discussing over the years and asks the question:
At what level of government debt and future commitments does government default go from being unthinkable to inevitable, and how does our government think about that risk?
The good news, according to Einhorn, is that:
…the government response to the recession has created budgetary stress sufficient to bring about the crisis much sooner. Our generation — not our grandchildren’s — will have to deal with the consequences.
