Would Shorter Political Terms Change "Short-Termism?"

Einhorn shorts U.S. 'short-term thinking' - NY Post reports David Einhorn is bullish on gold because he's bearish on Obama. Members of President Obama's prized economic team, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, are "quintessential short-term decision makers," Einhorn said, explaining his sudden fondness for gold. Watching Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and White House economic advisor Larry Summers on television recently, "my instinct was to short the dollar," Einhorn joked at the Value Investing Congress. Instead, he decided to invest in gold, even though futures hit a record price of $1,072 an ounce last week. Gold does well when "monetary and fiscal policies go awry," said the hedge-fund manager best known for shorting toppled investment bank Lehman Brothers. Specifically, Einhorn trashed the team's "too-big-to-fail" policy requiring taxpayers to prop up large, troubled institutions, like banks. "Our authorities have taken the view that kids will be kids," he said, comparing the officials to the parents of teenagers who know they will be rescued any time they get caught. He suggested public officials break up large financial institutions that appear on the brink of collapse rather than bail them out. Einhorn also said Geithner's regulatory reform plan was akin to efforts to stop terrorism by "frisking grandma and taking away everyone's shampoo." He scoffed at the idea that the government might try to regulate complex financial instruments like credit default swaps, believing they should be wiped out. He said regulating the swaps is like "trying to make asbestos safer."

On a side note, Mr. Einhorn has made a couple of 2outof4 appearances now!

-2outof4