Long Green, Short Red, White and Blue

By

Tim Carney, who specializes in showing how businesses use government as a mechanism to secure profit, takes a look at former Tiger Management fund manager Julian Robertson’s environmentalism. Turns out he stands to make a bundle from costly alternative energy sources as well as an economic downturn brought about by higher energy costs.
Nice work if you can get it.

A bigger Robertson bet, presenting a more insidious angle, is his short position on 10-year Treasury bonds paired with a long position on two-year Treasuries. Basically, if the U.S. economy is fundamentally unsound, Robertson gets rich. “I’ve made a big bet on it,” Robertson told Fortune. “I really think I’m going to make 20 or 30 times on my money.”
Robertson sees lots of reasons for an impending downturn, but severe restrictions on coal and petroleum use would help along a recession. A study released last week by the National Association of Manufacturers reports that leading climate change bill S2191 (which Akin Gump is now pushing) would, in the year 2030, cost the gross domestic product at least $631 billion, cost 4 million jobs, reduce household incomes at least $4,000, double electricity prices and nearly double gasoline prices.
Such a report, funded, albeit, by a trade group opposing the legislation, highlights both the down sides of climate-change legislation and a possible up side to the legislation for a man betting against the U.S. economy.


Going short on America, long on Gore agenda [Washington Examiner]

[Full disclosure: Tim Carney is closely related to one of DealBreaker's editors.]

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Comments (16)

  1. 1
    Posted by Lowly Assistant | March 21, 2008 at 3:59 PM

    Not that this has anything to do with anything, but WSJ for free. Have at it.
    http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/03/21/wsj/index.html

  2. 2
    Posted by Anal_yst | March 21, 2008 at 4:03 PM

    Nice link, and btw Carney, if you ever try to change the Back() property to point to the current page (like on Salon.com) I will make sure you suffer from the grusome torture of the noxious coochierot of Sptizerwhore

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | March 21, 2008 at 4:04 PM

    Tim Carney comes across as someone that would have supported Ron Paul for President.

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | March 21, 2008 at 4:05 PM

    Anal_yst, do you get an alert whenever there is a new post (is there a way to do this?) or do you just press reload alot?

  5. 5
    Posted by Lowly Assistant | March 21, 2008 at 4:24 PM

    This is bullshit. Bess Leviticus and John Deuteronomy poured gold in front of our eyes all day Thursday, leaving us high and dry on a holy Friday. I bet Carney’s eating breadsticks in his boxers, while playing sega genesis (capping those glory days). Levin’s probably on a motorcycle haulin’ ass down 85, eating un-kosher cheeseburgers, looking to kick some biker ass.
    One more hour. That’s all I can stand. One more.

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | March 21, 2008 at 4:29 PM

    you keep DB open in your browser and then hit refresh, reload, whatever, when you visit the site again. Not really a lot of work. except for today, with such a minimalist approach to posting, when nothing seems to change.

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | March 21, 2008 at 5:30 PM

    What about an RSS feed?

  8. 8
    Posted by Anonymous | March 21, 2008 at 7:34 PM

    lowly,
    Absolutely brilliant!
    You made celebrating the death of my savior just a little bit easier.

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | March 21, 2008 at 9:16 PM

    “Tim Carney, who specializes in showing how businesses use government as a mechanism to secure profit…”
    yeah, yeah, whatever — how is he as a Dungeon Master? Like, on the ‘great’-ness scale where Ron Blarney is a 10?

  10. 10
    Posted by guest | March 21, 2008 at 11:44 PM

    “John Carney, who specializes in being the Dungeon Master for weekly D&D tournaments…”

  11. 11
    Posted by Novice | March 22, 2008 at 3:48 AM

    So it’s the Catholic who posts on the day the market is closed for Good Friday. Does this mean that the holy day of partying somehow has more appeal than the holy day of abstinence?

  12. 12
    Posted by prieur | March 22, 2008 at 9:50 AM

    Good for Julian Robertson! Why shouldn’t an entrepreneur / trader avail himself of opportunities in the capital markets? That, after all, is what capitalism is all about. If, for example, panic-stricken people push long Treasury yields down to crazily overvalued levels, why not allow the Robertsons of the world to trade the price back to fair value?

  13. 13
    Posted by guest | March 23, 2008 at 10:10 AM

    Julian Robertsoon, a good ole Episcopal High School donator (ala John McCain) and a tiger cub mentor. I found a new blog for all you young analysts and associates.
    http://alphabonus.blogspot.com/
    It talks about average bonuses and salaries these days, which we all know are going to fall, yall.

  14. 14
    Posted by guest | March 23, 2008 at 12:32 PM

    Goldman sold their windfarm and made $1.5 B in so doing. Go Green!!! “.~Everybody get on board……!!”

  15. 15
    Posted by guest | March 23, 2008 at 11:58 PM

    want to cum in al gore’s mouth

  16. 16
    Posted by SlashAndBurn | March 24, 2008 at 12:28 AM

    Al Gore fancies farm animals, and is a liar too:
    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Great+Global+Warming+Swindle+Pt&search_type=
    There are 8 parts, enjoy.

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