by drgoodword » Sun 19 Oct 2008, 18:02:57
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'B')elieve he was an honest man who just enjoyed hoodwinking Yalies if you like. I'm all for stealing from the rich to give to the poor, but Lahde was no Robin Hood. He was out there for Lahde, and when he perceived he could no longer hoodwink anyone, he booked out with what he could take. If his trade balance had tons of money in it, he would not have booked out. He was looking at huge losses and he left them for others to live with. A real coward.
I think you've misunderstood his farewell letter.
You have to keep in mind the context of the success of his investment strategy in 2007-2008. He bet that the subprime crisis
was not containted (while the opposite was preached back in 2007 by Bernanke and the MSM), and made his bets with that assumption. The "elite" that he was "stealing from" were the overeducated progeny of the ruling class who are just as incapable of independent thought as joe sixpack. While the "Yalies" were nodding their heads to Bernankes hollow assurances, Lahde took a hard look at the facts and concluded the housing bubble was going to fold like a cheap tent. And so it did.
As for "not hearing" about losses incurred by Lahde's clients...his farewell memo has been internationally reported. If he's burned people on the way to making his exit, we'll likely hear about it. At this point, it would definitely be
news.
By the way...I don't "trust" Lahde because of some altruism or naivete on my part...I believe his story because he had the most winning strategy in 2007 (see the link in my above post). His plans to apply his methods and assumptions to the commercial real estate market were likely successful because the CRE market did just as badly this year as the residential housing market did last year. In light of this point, I think Occam's razor is in favour of a positive exit for Lahde.