Posted on 09/07/2010 6:14:32 AM PDT by blam
Famed Hedge Funder Michael Burry Is Buying Farmland, And Sees More Pain For The Dollar And Housing
Joe Weisenthal
Sep. 7, 2010, 7:59 AM
Michael Burry, the famed hedge fund manager featured prominently in The Big Short, is betting big on farmland, and expects the collapse of the dollar, he tells Bloomberg.
Apparently he's still poking around for his next "big" idea (Burry famously shorted the housing market through the same type of bets that made John Paulson mega-rich), though he thinks having farmland with a good water supply is very attractive.
In a segment of the interview here, he slams the fact that nobody's taken responsibility for the crisis, and he predicts more housing pain ahead due to the government's falsely propping up of the market (still) via Fannie and Freddie, and the millions of homeowners that are delinquent but haven't been kicked out of their homes yet.
Farmland, of coursee has been an uber trendy investment, as folks like Jim Rogers and Barton Biggs have all sung its praises. Like gold, it's a bet against hyperinflation and instability and also war.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
He's a Prepper.
If you're anticipating the kind of collapse in which you expect that the most valuable thing to own is well-watered farmland, then you need two assets which few people in the USA have: farming skills and a tight-knit extended family.
In a collapse that this investment anticipates, gold and well-watered farmland will be stolen from you by thugs unless you have a decent number of loyal people around you who can defend your property.
Paid farmhands are not as reliable as brothers or sons or nephews.
During the stagflation of the 1970s I saw some of my friends become wealthy buying prime farmland in the Midwest.
My forecast: CO2 levels WILL rise because the Chinese, Indians, et al, want to raise their standard of living by using fossil fuels. The effect on the climate is minor, at best, however plant growth rates WILL go up.
Any ETFs for farmland?
It’s coming. They can smell it. Any fool can see it.
ping
Silver just hit 20 bucks an ounce for the first time. This is not looking good. We are in for it.
my brother is expanding his dairy herd as rapidly as possible and wants to soon move out of his rented facilities to a farm of his own...he has already been working with cattle for 2/3 of his life and is laying the groundwork to do so for the rest of it.
Buy up any inexpensive rural land that you can that will grow food or raise cattle. I think the government is going to start confiscating land through some b.s. “program” soon.
“Brazil screwed it all up,” Chris Mayer, editor of Mayer’s Special Situations, laments by way of giving us an explanation. Last week, the Brazilian government let loose a sudden, “immediately binding” mandate that effectively outlawed all foreign ownership of domestic farmland…eerily similar to the Zimbabwean farmland coup."
“Worse,” Chris continues, “the legal rules are so unclear that all such acquisitions since 1988 could be null and void, with the land returned to nationals. I can tell you from talking to people down there in the last few days – including attorneys – that local businesspeople are not dismissing that possibility."
[snip]
“The new rules will freeze agricultural investment in Brazil,” adds Chris. “This is big news for global food markets because Brazil was such a key part of the equation. Brazil, as I’ve pointed out, is the world’s arable land bank. This is where we’d get the added food supply the world needs.
He should be finding a place to hide.
tell the farmers of Zimbabwe that farmland was a safe hedge against social instability
your brother’s skills will rule in a society littered with amateurs trying to stay alive
Yikes!
I should have added, buy farmland in TEXAS, the most business-friendly state in the nation.
BTW, we can put a lot of land back into crops that is now growing grass or forest.
oh, wait ...
There are professional Farm Management companies who guard against the threats you mention. There are also plenty of responsible young people who are just aching to expand their crop acres, but simply cannot put the money together to buy.
Don't know where you live, but out here in the cornfields of Iowa there aren't many crooks. So I feel the fears you listed are unfounded.
Texas is the future DMZ, man
Texans will prevail.
Remember the Alamo!
They'll find you.
Read this book:
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