Join us
the audit

FT on the Other Paulson

The Financial Times has an interesting piece of news: John Paulson, who’s made many billions of dollars betting against housing in the last couple of years,...
November 18, 2008

Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter.

The Financial Times has an interesting piece of news: John Paulson, who’s made many billions of dollars betting against housing in the last couple of years, is now wading into fire-sale mortgage bonds.

This is a hopeful sign, for once, about the possible softening of the crisis. Now, it’s impossible for any investor to time a market, but if I were betting, I wouldn’t want to go against this guy:

According to Alpha Magazine, Mr Paulson made $3.7bn in 2007, reflecting the success of his strategy — begun in 2006 — of betting on a collapse of the subprime mortgage market. At the end of the third quarter of this year, his funds were up 15-25 per cent. His funds also made profits in October, his investors say.

And the FT’s story has nice context for a short piece.

Has America ever needed a media defender more than now? Help us by joining CJR today.

Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR’s business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum.