Soros shuts his hedge fund as economic crisis looms
Posted on 26 July 2011 with 7 comments from readers
George Soros is retiring as a hedge fund manager and shutting his hedge fund, returning about a $1 billion remaining to his loyal investors. He will concentrate on managing his own family office, blaming new regulations that will make operating in his previous style difficult in the future.
However, there can be no more obviously bearish signal than the closure of such a fund. Warren Buffett famously packed up just before the market collapse of the 1970s.
Soros has also left nobody in any doubt about where he thinks financial markets are going with some pretty damning statements (click here). Shutting a fund when you think the world is on the brink of collapse sounds logical.
At 81 years old he could be just winding down for personal reasons but when did Soros ever do that? He is a market thoroughbred and knows his onions.
Greatest hedge fund manager
Would you bet against the man who broke the Bank of England in the early 90s and who claims to have given away $8 billion to charitable causes? Geroge Soros is one of the greatest investors of our time and when he calls it a day all should listen.
It is just a shame that we will probably not share as many of his insights as in the past, though they were frequently misread and often deliberately misleading!
7 Comments posted by readers:
Without a doubt, I believe George Soros knew about the extensive FED money printing (well over US $16 trillion, not including TARP, QE1 and QE2 money!) that the GAO reported last week . . . this was truly a blockbuster “news” announcement, yet virtually no news media, other than the Internet “alternative news” folks, have commented about this report. Is anyone wondering why “no news coverage?”
Background:
The GAO audit of the FED was requested by Congressman Ron Paul, and was subsequently inserted into the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. I remarked on this in a different ArabianMoney.net blog, and I’ll repeat it here, with references.
In summary, the FED gave approx. half of that $16T to 4 US financial institutions, and the other half to banks overseas . . .
Here are two important links that shed further light on this topic:
1. ZeroHedge: Ahhh, yes, we can always rely on ZH to reveal what the major news media are told not to reveal:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bill-buckler-puts-things-back-perspective-total-us-15-trillion-market-capitalization-fed-provid
2. The Daily Bell: A fascinating read here; they expose why there is virtually no news coverage of this topic:
http://www.thedailybell.com/2729/GAO-Fed-Issued-US16-Trillion-During-2008-Crisis
there is no doubt peter there is a papered-over collapse coming.
Off subject, but the following action backs up your love of Gold:
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE76Q05H20110727?feedType=RSS&feedName=investingNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FAFRICAbusinessNews+%28News+%2F+AFRICA+%2F+Business+News%29
- until someone can shoot down with facts that what Soros predicts for world markets is wrong …
…… anyone?
- ask any economist the significance of (USA) debt exceeding 100% GDP …
……. anyone?
- I’m just off to the supermarket for some cans of etc. etc.
“Mr Soros is expected to invest an increasing amount of his cash in gold after forecasting in May that the precious metal would reach as much as $4,000 an ounce over the next three to five years”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/soros-returns-1bn-to-investors-as-he-ends-his-hedge-fund-career-2326452.html
@ philcu
methinks you are absolutely correct!
@Peter:
confirmation bias maybe?
There is 25bn threshold where the fund has to be sec registered and as such would limit it’s ability to function in a flexible way. The bearish stance might still be the case but this change in structure has nothing to do with it.