– Founder Of $30 Billion Hedge Fund BlueCrest Says Most Euro Banks Are Insolvent; Euro Situation Much “Worse Than 2008” (ZeroHedge, Dec. 16, 2011):
The Founder of one of the world’s largest asset managers, the $30 billion hedge fund BlueCrest, Michael Platt, spoke to Bloomberg TV and cut right to the chase, saying most of the banks in Europe are insolvent and the situation in the region is “completely unstable.” On how he approaches market risk: “”I do not take any exposure to banks at all if I can avoid it. All the money at BlueCrest Capital Management is in Two-Year U.S. government debt, Two-Year German debt, we have segregated accounts with all of our counterparties. We are absolutely concerned about the credit quality of the counterparties.” On investing in illiquid assets, Platt said he “would not touch them with a barge pole” and that “the major opportunities will come post-blowout.” Something tells us Russia and China know this all too well, and realize that the best time to “invest” in Europe is after the single (or multiple) bankruptcy. Which incidentally, as Kyle Bass said yesterday, after the “blowout” is when the ECB will finally step in as well, at which point the entire world will go all in on that now infamous 2-7 offsuit. And his view on how that bluff will end: ‘In my opinion, what’s going on now is significantly worse than 2008.“
Platt on Europe’s sovereign debt crisis: