Shortselling People
One of the items I left out of the most recent home page piece on my webzine was a note about how John Paulson got his boffo paycheck. Paulson, if you remember, was the hedge fund manager who took home $3.7 billion last year. It'd've been nice to squeeze it in there, but it wasn't necessary. Again, as I pointed out in my last blog entry, I'm not making these notes to pout about someone else looking richer than I do. I just want to point out things that just aren't being pointed out, and I think there may be a few who are interested, that's all. I share it also because it does parallel a recent current event that some are opining about. That in a moment. First, Paulson got his take mostly on the strength of deft shortselling in the housing market. He took advantage of dip in home values by shorting those infamous collateralized debt obligations, or mortgages-turned-into-bonds. It's a bit complicated how he did it, at its core having to do with the concept of ...