Is he bullish on real estate, or just committed to stock picking?
Greenlight Capital Management founder David Einhorn is used to taking controversial positions. But it's rare that he faces off in public against such esteemed hedge fund luminaries as he did when he spoke at the Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference in May.
Earlier in the day, Duquesne Capital Management's Stanley Druckenmiller had given a dire warning on the economy, including what has become almost conventional wisdom: the real estate bubble is about to burst. That didn't sway Einhorn, whose fund has several real estate-related holdings. When he got up to speak, he put forward one stock investing idea: the Denver home builder MDC Holdings.
Carl Icahn immediately followed, making a point of directly rebutting Einhorn. The activist founder of Icahn Partners opined that Einhorn seemed like a nice enough guy, but he attacked the wisdom of recommending...