Michael Burry Sells All But Prisons

In their latest episode of the VALUE: After Hours Podcast, Brewster, Taylor, and Carlisle discuss Michael Burry Sells All But Prisons. Here’s an excerpt from the episode:

Tobias: Did you guys see Burry’s latest 13F?

Jake: He sold it all. He went in on a– [crosstalk]

Tobias: Everything’s except for GEO. [crosstalk]

Bill: Yeah, which is what–

Tobias: It’s like a prison mental health– Private prison mental health.

Bill: Yeah, private prison. Good for him.

Jake: Ooh, that’s dark. [laughs]

Tobias: He’s just punched out of every other single thing in the portfolio.

Jake: Everything, huh?

Bill: Good for him.

Tobias: Is that outside money or is that just him?

Jake: I don’t know at this point.

Bill: I have no idea.

Jake: You would think after watching The Big Short, how angry all the investors were and I’m sure he was like, “All right, I don’t really need this in my life anymore.”

Bill: I am not part of this distribution – [crosstalk] fucking list

Tobias: But then, he can probably raise a lot of money.

Jake: Yeah. He could probably raise a lot of money.

Tobias: Yeah.

Jake: He’s not following anyone on Twitter. So, that’s part of the problem. [laughs]

Bill: No, he does that intentionally. That’s part of the allure.

Jake: The flex.

Tobias: He deletes his tweets immediately too.

Bill: Yeah.

Tobias: So, you just got to follow. Don’t follow Burry. Follow the Burry Archive.

Bill: Ah, look at you. That is smart. Where’s that?

Tobias: Burry Archive.

Bill: Oh, few.

Tobias: If you search those two words, it should come up.

Bill: It’s as if they named it for what it is.

Tobias: It does give me a little bit of pause when Burry who called that last–

Bill: Nah.

Jake: [laughs]

Tobias: The reasons for just to punch out of every single thing.

Bill: No way.

Tobias: But it’s not so much the selling and of everything, whatever. That’s a little concerning but going all in on prisons and mental asylums. Does that say something?

Bill: Yeah.

Jake: Yeah. What does that tell you? [crosstalk]

Bill: I don’t know, hopefully–

Jake: About society?

Bill: Hopefully, he takes a big loss on the position as we decriminalize some of the marijuana convictions-

Jake: Hmm. That would make sense.

Bill: -retroactively even though I know some of my conservative friends are screaming at their screen saying, “How can you break the law and get away with it?” The answer is, “I don’t care.”

Tobias: I saw a study today that says that the US has longer prison sentences and fewer police per– I don’t know if it’s per citizen or per resident of the jails. The better idea would be shorter prison sentences and more police. Underpolicing is the problem is their argument.

Bill: Oh.

Jake: The US is underpolicing right now?

Tobias: Yeah, underpolicing.

Bill: It’s possible.

Jake: [chuckles] I’m sure everyone in rougher neighborhoods is like, “Oh, yeah, a lot of underpolicing happening here.”

Tobias: They’ve got the statistics. I don’t know if it’s true or not. Statistically, it seems to be true. I don’t know what it means. I’m not an advocate for either of those two things.

Bill: You’re trying to lock people up, man. Is that what you’re trying to do here?

Tobias: I’m just trying to make sure– I don’t get locked up, mate. That’s the only thing I’m doing.

Jake: Take it easy there, spitzer.

Tobias: [laughs]

Bill: Yeah.

Tobias: By the way, I’m running for Attorney General of California.

Jake: Yeah. [laughs]

Tobias: More police, longer prison sentences.

Bill: I could see how you could have a theory that social media and what it does to people’s minds or constantly being connected to the internet, could lead to more mental instability. If you were long some sort of mental–

Jake: Or Prozac?

Bill: Whatever. Yeah. But I could see that, if that’s part of the prison thesis. I don’t know about– I haven’t looked into private prisons enough, I guess. I’m sure they’re great margins.

Tobias: Oh.

Jake: There’s got to be a better way to make a living.

Tobias: Yeah.

Bill: Yeah. But that’s the beauty of being a passive investor. You don’t have to actually go do it.

Jake: Yeah, no conscience.

Bill: Munger would advise against it, I think.

Tobias: Yeah, I was just about the say. I don’t see those guys lighting up on cigarettes and so on.

Bill: A young Munger might think differently. But a rich, older Munger would say, “Don’t do it.”

Jake: Ugh.

Tobias: My favorite quote of his was when he said something like, “We stopped trafficking in the really cheap stuff and our returns didn’t go down that much.” I was like, “Yeah, that’s right.”

Jake: [laughs] Hmm.

Tobias: That’s what the rich, old Munger does.

Bill: Yeah.

Tobias: Pour more money. Also, it’s trading, I guess. That’s always nice.

Bill: Munger, what a beast to look upon.

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