Up until the motion picture The Big Short, which is based on the best-selling book by Michael Lewis, the name Michael Burry was probably unfamiliar to most people.
The comedy motion picture flashes back to the 2008 timeframe where the subprime debacle was just taking hold.
The cast of characters bet against the big banks, and potentially, the American economy to get rich while the Empire crumbled.
One of the characters is Michael Burry, played by Christian Bale. According to an article in CNBC, Burry made a fortune in last decade's financial crisis by betting that the housing bubble would burst, is also gaining a following north of Hollywood, as a Silicon Valley tech investor.
Now, in 2015, the article explained his latest venture. Burry is an early investor in PeerStreet, an online marketplace for real estate-backed loans.
From CNBC:
PeerStreet's mission is to open up a particular segment of the real estate market — residential, typically non-owner occupied — to a wider swath of investors, thus adding capital to the system and ultimately bringing down borrowing costs.
"What happened in the crisis is there was practically no underwriting — if something could be sold it would be made," Burry said in an interview. "It's important for the next-generation alternative lending model that there be controls in place. There's somebody at the door checking for excess credit risk."
Read the article for the in-depth interview on his involvement with PeerStreet and even his role in The Big Short.
Watch the trailer here since the movie isn’t even out yet. It’s set to hit theatres on Dec. 22.
