“Big Short” fund manager Steven Eisman says he is “celebrating” the destruction of Gaza

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Steven Eisman, a hedge fund manager best known for betting on the collapse of the US housing market, wrote on social media that he was “celebrating” the destruction of Gaza, in comments he later retracted.

A managing director at Neuberger Berman in New York since 2014, Eisman was featured in Michael Lewis’ book. The Great Short. His character was portrayed by actor Steve Carell in the 2016 film version. In the adaptation, Carell’s character was given the name Mark Baum.

His comments on X’s account, which included the Neuberger Berman logo, were in response to a graphic post showing buildings on fire with people screaming in agony, apparently as a result of an Israeli attack. The video was posted with comments about the lack of international concern over such incidents and said: “The world is silent.”

Eisman responded to the post Thursday: “We are not silent. We’re celebrating.”

He later apologized for his remark, writing that he had intended to refer to Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. He has since deleted the involved account altogether.

Eisman became famous for shorting U.S. mortgage-backed collateralized debt obligations before their collapse in 2007 and 2008.

Neuberger Berman is reviewing the facts, and Eisman’s future at the firm is uncertain, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The company said Eisman’s “personal comments on social media are his own and do not speak for Neuberger Berman. Even though Mr. Eisman admitted he was wrong about the content of the post he was responding to, his actions on social media were irresponsible and unacceptable.”

Eisman took a strong pro-Israel stance on X and posted on the topic regularly against those who criticized the country.

His strident commentary extended to politics. Earlier this week, he said that if Kamala Harris won the US presidential election and Democrats took control of both houses of Congress, he expected the US market to go “down”. He predicted that Donald Trump would win the election.

A Harvard lawyer by training, Eisman left the profession to become a financial analyst at the Wall Street investment bank Oppenheimer. He later moved to Connecticut-based hedge fund FrontPoint Partners, eventually focusing on the mispricing of subprime residential mortgages. He left FrontPoint in 2011 and set up his own fund, Emrys Partners, the following year. He joined Neuberger after Emrys closed.

Neuberger Berman, once owned by the collapsed Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers, spun off as an employee-run investment firm in 2009. Since then, the company has thrived. The investment firm currently has $481 billion in assets under management with 739 employees, according to its website.