Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn was speaking today at the 5th Value Investing Congress in New York City.
Two years ago he appeared as a highlight lecture of the show, and laid out his reasons for shorting Lehman Brothers stock. Needless to say there was quite a bit of attention to what he had to say today.
Here are some highlights:
1. A very bleak outlook for the US economy
2. US has a lack of political will to adopt needed financial reforms.
3. Right now he would like to hold gold rather than cash because "gold benefits from poor fiscal policy."
4. Buying long dated options on much higher interest rates in the US and Japan
5. Singled out GE as thwarting financial reform due to their intense lobbying efforts.
Transcript of David Einhorn's presentation.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” Marcus Tullius Cicero