Chapter 2. Pipedreams and Big Lies

 

“What we are constantly exchanging, over the incredible network of wires, are quotations, orders, bluffs, fibs, lies, and nonsense”

 
 --Fred Schwed Jr., Where Are the Customers’ Yachts, 1940

James Chanos makes a living by exposing the big lie. Discovering tall tales and grand deceptions is what make the short seller’s day, allowing him to bet against a company or an entire industry in the expectation that it will come crashing down. If you find the big lie in one area, then related areas are often in jeopardy, advises Chanos, who is founder and president of Kynikos Associates in New York.

The technology and telecommunications world has been an especially happy hunting ground for Chanos and other short sellers in ...

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