Noah Smith, Columnist

'Big Short' Hero Is Wrong This Time

He's misreading today's financial landscape.

January 5, 2016 at 9:08 PM UTC

Noah Smith is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.

Bound to ideology?
Photographer: Jim Spellman/WireImage/Getty Images

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It’s a sad truth that human genius isn't as versatile as we’d like. A basketball legend may be a mediocre baseball player. A great scientist may be a terrible investor.

Few would question the investing prowess of Michael Burry, the one-time hedge-fund manager featured in Michael Lewis’ book "The Big Short." Burry proved his brilliance as a value investor in the early 2000s, and became a legend by predicting the collapse of the housing bubble. It would be very difficult to find an economist who could match Burry’s skill in the markets. And yet, this doesn't mean that we should trust Burry’s theories when it comes to economics.