Bill Ackman Made $2.6B by Betting Against Markets After Fearmongering 'Hell is Coming' CNBC Interview

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Mar. 27, 2020

Now we know why Bill Ackman went on CNBC and cried about his father while warning that "hell is coming" if our entire country is not shut down in response to the coronavirus.

From the New York Post:

When billionaire Bill Ackman went on television last week to tearfully warn that "hell is coming" and beg the White House to shut down the country for 30 days, he was knee deep in a bet against the markets that netted him $2.6 billion.

In a Wednesday note to investors of his Pershing Square fund, Ackman said he cashed out of a credit hedge on Monday for a profit of $2.6 billion. The hedge, which he started building on March 3, cost him roughly $27 million and scored big as stock and debt markets floundered on fears of the coming pandemic -- fears, critics say, that he helped stoke.

After firing off a tweetstorm to President Trump on March 17 proposing that the US impose a nationwide "extended spring break" to combat the virus' spread, Ackman called into CNBC the next morning. In an emotional interview, he claimed to have locked down in late February after realizing how deadly the pandemic was going to be for people like his immuno-compromised septuagenarian father.

Tucker Carlson highlighted Ackman's shady dealings on his show last night:

Tucker Slamming Billionaire Bill Ackman For Profiting Off Market Hysteria He Helped Create

"He's an amoral greedhead whose behavior adds nothing to our country & often hurts us."

"What kind of society thinks that Bill Ackman is a role model? We should ask ourselves that." pic.twitter.com/g2JKuWRlGZ
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) March 27, 2020

"Ackman doesn't seem embarrassed by this in the least," Carlson said. "Apparently he plans to keep his new billions. He hasn't announced any plans to donate any of it to the Americans whose lives he just made worse. But that's the kind of person Bill Ackman is. He's an amoral greedhead whose behavior adds nothing worth having to our country and often hurts us."

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