Mark Spitznagel-A Goat Farmer Who Booked A 4,144% Return; Mark Spitznagel Teaches the Economists How to Invest; Spitznagel on investing for financial storms (video)
[Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan and other books is a partner with Mark Spitznagel, a follower of Austrian Economics. Spitznagel resides close to Detroit Michigan, in the densely wooded peninsula of Northport Point. His offices are in Miami. Spitznagel confirms that his writings about Austrian economics are correct with Bob Murphy. Taleb remains one of the partners with Spitznagel but due to the pressure Taleb is no longer engaged in day-to-day investing. - JRD]
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Spitznagel is the “founder of Universa Investments, which is a hedge fund with a unique strategy that thrived on chaos in the markets…Outside his window, across the waters of Northport Bay on Lake Michigan, he could see the snow-blanketed rolling hills of Idyll Farms, where he and his wife raised goats and produced award-winning cheese.”
"Spitznagel had been preparing for moments like this since he was a 16-year-old, staring in all at the pandemonium of a Chicago trading pit in the 1980s... as pandemonium broker out across world markets in March 2020, he was perfectly calm.
Communicating via intercom with a small team of traders back at Universa’s headquarters on the 20th floor of an ocean – side tower in Miami's Coconut Grove, he was monitoring the firms finely calibrated positions in trades specifically designed to benefit from chaos. He watched the imploding markets with a sense of dread and fascination. Universa, which managed the risk of 4.3 billion for clients around the world, had been positioning itself for such a disaster for years." [When the return was 4,144%
Chaos Kings: How Wall Street Traders Make Billions In The Age Of Crisis, p. 12, Scott Patterson
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Bob Murphy Mises Institute profile
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Mark Spitznagel:
"Today's Keynesians recognize that odd things happen when interest rates are pushed down to zero; because cash and government bonds become virtually interchangeable, the Fed suddenly loses 'traction' and can no longer stimulate investment. Yet because of their misdiagnosis of the problem, the 'Keynesian' solution is all the worse – they recommend either government deficit spending or 'unconventional' monetary policy that will convince the public that higher price inflation is down the road. Naturally, such alleged remedies will only exacerbate the misallocation of resources that the Austrians have correctly identified.
In light of the distortions generated during the unsustainable boom – and the misery that would necessarily fall off in the ensuing bust – it is no wonder that Mises considered economics to be 'deadly serious.' To him it was no mere, intellectual exercise; rather 'the very future of mankind – of civilization' rested upon an understanding of these economic principles."
The Dao of Capital: Austrian Investing in a Distorted World, p. 198, Mark Spitznagel
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Mark Spitznagel Teaches the Economists How to Invest (audio)
“Bob reviews Mark Spitznagel's latest book, Safe Haven: Investing for Financial Storms, on which he was a consultant. Bob explains that Spitznagel rejects the alleged dichotomy between risk and return, and then gives a numerical example to illustrate the two schools of thought.”
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
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26 minutes, 16 seconds:
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