This “L” Train Doesn’t Go To Brooklyn

Why, oh why, did John Paulson sit down for an interview with Businessweek magazine? Here’s a guy who became a financial legend by betting against subprime mortgages before the market collapsed in 2007, netting his investors $15 billion while putting almost $4 billion in his own pocket. And historically he’s kept a very low profile.

“I avoid the media,” he says, which is an understatement. While many people beyond finance have heard his name, he has never given a television interview, and he says people rarely recognize him on the street …

So maybe now he’ll get a few extra shout-outs now when he walks past Zuccotti Park, but was it worth the price? This looks to me like  a really bad trade, what in the world was he thinking?

Businessweek Cover.
Sometimes there is such a thing as bad publicity!

I’m as much into schadenfreude as the next guy, but c’mon. Sure, the past year has been his Annus Horribilis, but is that reason enough to plaster his face on the cover of a national magazine and give him a First Class Seat on the L Train?

Certainement pas!