“When I think about what is happening in Washington right now, I think of the expression that was used in Wall Street a long time ago, which is that we are up to our knees in midgets. That is what I think about when I think about Washington right now, and I guess that is a terrible thing to say, but the fact that we are one week away from a pseudo- default is a reflection of the fact that Washington is less than a place of great intellectual wisdom.” [BloombergTV]
Michael Steinhardt
Michael Steinhardt Wants To Know How Long Before People Like CNBC ‘Wake Up’ To Warren Buffett’s ‘Reality’
By Bess Levin
Earlier this morning, legendary hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt popped by the CNBC studios for a little chat with the Squawk Box crew. Things started off friendly enough, with some conversation about the petting-zoo Steinhardt keeps at his home in Westchester (which includes zebras, camels, albino wallabies and a llama named Angel Mike has been known to french kiss), his rare-plant collection that inspires envy in Martha Stewart, the economy and the Fed. Steinhardt noted that, compared to the rest of what’s going on in the world, “we live in an inland sea of calm waters while surrounding us are turbulent, horrible places,” to which everyone nodded soberly in agreement, unaware of what was coming next. “America seems almost as insular as it has in times past,” Mike continued. “Look at the rest of the world compared to America, look what’s happening all over and then here the biggest thing we have to worry about is how long it will take Buffett to come down to earth…how long until people like you begin to realize his reality and get off some…cloud.”
Oh, he went there. Continue reading »
Michael Steinhardt says yes. Continue reading »
Retired Hedge Fund Manager Michael Steinhardt Spends Days Talking To, French Kissing Animals
By Bess Levin
Michael Steinhardt used to run a $4.4 billion hedge fund that typically returned 30% before fees. He shuttered the firm in 1995 and now he fills his days by outbidding Martha Stewart at rare-plant auctions (“Don’t expect to buy much if Michael Steinhardt is there. He buys everything,” she tells people) and tending to a “zoo-sized collection of animals that includes zebras, camels and albino wallabies,” which he communicates with, and gives better loving to, than his wife.
On a recent Friday…He pointed out the barns his wife had built for the animals and showed off a pair of red-ruffed lemurs, the most recent additions to his menagerie of roughly 200 (excluding waterfowl). Mr. Steinhardt mimicked the low honk of a capybara, a large rodent from Central and South America, wandering nearby and said, “And that’s what he has to say!”
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