Long ago in ancient Troy, the beautiful princess Cassandra promised the god Apollo “the opportunity of her body,” in exchange for the gift of prophecy. Apollo granted her request to be able to tell the future, but naughty Cassandra reneged on her side of the deal.
Long ago in ancient Troy, the beautiful princess Cassandra promised the god Apollo “the opportunity of her body,” in exchange for the gift of prophecy. Apollo granted her request to be able to tell the future, but naughty Cassandra reneged on her side of the deal.
Apollo couldn’t take back the divine gift, but he could punish her. He condemned Cassandra to a terrible fate: she would always predict the truth, but no one would believe her.
(Case in point, Cassandra eventually warned her countrymen about what was hiding in the Trojan Horse, but they paid no attention… and the city of Troy fell to the Greek soldiers concealed in the horse’s wooden belly.
Michael Burry, who shot to fame for making a “Big Short” bet against the 2008 housing bubble, has leaned into the Cassandra legend, and adopted her name as his Internet nom de plume. He frequently deletes his Tweets, but his Twitter handle is forever.
The 2008-2009 housing crisis, of course, is just one of Burry’s dire predictions. And today, like us, he has a sharp eye on out-of-control inflation and Fed malfeasance, and he’s forecasting another 2008-style crash that could top the Great Recession.
Right now, he has an especially pertinent warning, couched in a speech he delivered at the UCLA Economics Convention. The Trojan government treated Cassandra like a madwoman (that’s why she’s always depicted with disheveled hair), but the U.S. government treated Michael Burry like a criminal.
And, Burry warns, if you dare to question the wizard behind the curtain, you could be next.
This is a vital speech, and everyone should listen to the whole thing (at 21 minutes long, it’s well worth a lunch break). But we’ve got a transcript of the “warning” portion for you right here…
What Happened to Burry Could Happen to Any of Us
Here’s the partial transcript of Michael Burry’s UCLA speech…
I had bet against America and won. In 2010 I published an op-ed in the New York Times, posing what I thought was a valid question of the Federal Reserve, Congress and the President: I saw the crisis coming, why did not the Fed?
Never did any member of Congress, any member of government for that matter, reach out to me for an open collegial discussion on what went wrong or what could be done.
Rather, within two weeks, all 6 of my defunct funds were audited. The Congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission demanded all my emails and a list of people with whom I had conversed going back to 2003.
And a little later the FBI showed up.
A million in legal and accounting costs, and thousands of hours of time wasted, all because I asked questions. It seemed they would pump me at gunpoint or not at all.
That summer the Federal Reserve put out a paper that concluded nothing in the field of economics or finance could have predicted what happened with regards to the housing bust and subsequent economic fallout.
Ben Bernanke continues to backfill this logic, and I fear that history is being written wrong yet again. The ignorance is willful. As we move forward as a country, it is worth considering mainstream economics and finance in light of recent events…
Our nation’s economic policies are born of a synthesis of theories on how to deal with the great depression of the 1930s yet seems unable to honestly examine the most recent one.
Sadly, at the highest level of economic thought in government, questions are not tolerated. It is as if we are dealing with the binary judgment of a fundamentalist religion.
Did you catch that – the paper dollar and Fed policies have been elevated to the status of a secular, fundamentalist religion. That’s Halloween-level scary, right there.
Remember late last month when we talked about witch hunts? Don’t think it can’t happen here…
Not that we’re frightened, of course.
As long-time followers of Porter Stansberry know – and as new readers will quickly discover – we don’t shy away from controversy at Porter & Company…. we aren’t afraid of breaking glass and slaughtering sacred cows…and no matter what, we tell the truth.
Here’s the truth, as we see it: Right now, America, as a whole, is in trouble. And we think the coming bear market will be especially painful for corporate bonds and indebted corporations.
At Porter & Company we’re watching the corporate credit markets carefully. We believe that defaults will continue to rise, refinancings will be become progressively more difficult and expensive, and, periodically, panics will erupt, giving us opportunities to make outstanding investments – like once-in-a-decade kind of stuff.
But don’t forget: bear markets bring outstanding opportunities for investors who are prepared… the markets rain gold every now and then.
Buying corporate debt that’s distressed (when it’s trading at a discount to par), and where the underlying business is sound, is – by far – the best investment opportunity we’ve ever seen in our careers.
And we’ll be making detailed recommendations in our elite newsletter, The Big Secret on Wall Street.
Of course, if you’re playing ostrich (or trying not to attract the attention of the FBI), you won’t see any of it.
But if you’re following Porter, you’ll…maybe get more than you bargained for.
As a reminder, Something You Don’t Know will be sent to you every other Friday as a complimentary part of your membership to our Porter & Company website. Porter Stansberry and team will continue to shine a bright light on something in the world of finance, investing and economics – or whatever else is on Porter’s mind – that’s just around the corner and lurking in the shadows.
Porter & Company
Stevenson, MD
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