News + Politics

The ‘Big Short’ of the Coronavirus Crash

Kevin Smith predicted the coronavirus crash … and now has a "macro trade of the century" up his sleeves.

Kevin Smith knew the math just didn’t add up. “U.S. large-cap stocks are the most overvalued in history, higher than prior speculative mania market peaks in 1929 and 2000,” the Crescat Capital chief investment officer warned in a letter to investors in November 2017.

And so Smith and his Denver-based firm took a huge gamble … and began shorting the longest bull run in history. As unemployment set new lows, Smith held a 50 percent cash position as a bet that a recession was looming. As President Donald Trump touted a stock market that delivered 23 percent returns in 2019, Smith’s firm took out significant stakes in precious metals such as gold and silver. And through it all, the investor remained skeptical of China, even as a market-boosting trade deal seemed tantalizingly close — an outcome that would have been disastrous for Smith and his three-decade career.

“It was a little scary,” the 55-year-old admits. And now? He's cashing in.

News + Politics

Can His 10-Minute Coronavirus Test Help Stop the Next Pandemic?

Suresh Neethirajan can test for coronavirus in poultry with a colorful strip. All of a sudden, he's in high demand.

Academics are familiar with the challenge of trying to get the general public to care about a niche issue or research question to which they've doggedly dedicated their careers. But amid a coronavirus pandemic, Suresh Neethirajan has suddenly found his scientific focus — developing diagnostic tools for flu strains in animals — to be a matter of urgent global concern.

For nearly a decade, Neethirajan has been tinkering away to develop a device that instantly detects avian flu strains in poultry. As the 39-year-old — who has family roots in agriculture — watched people use home-based diabetes tests, he began wondering why there wasn't an affordable rapid test for avian flu detection. He rolled up his sleeves and got cracking on a design solution, later shifting focus to other coronavirus strains, such as the one that emerged from animals (likely bats) and has swept the globe in recent months.