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- Michael Burry rang the alarm on stocks and took aim at the Federal Reserve and Big Tech companies.
- "The Big Short" investor warned the stock market's stretched valuation isn't sustainable.
- The Fed is downplaying inflation and Facebook is harming its users, he said.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Michael Burry warned the US stock market is in a precarious position, accused the Federal Reserve of misleading investors, and swore off America's largest technology companies in a flurry of tweets at the weekend.
The contrarian investor is best known for his billion-dollar bet against the US housing bubble – which was chronicled in the book and the movie "The Big Short" – and for inadvertently laying the groundwork for the GameStop short squeeze and the broader meme-stock boom.
Burry tweeted a link to a recent research paper that found the US stock market's value rose by $5 for every $1 invested in it. The Scion Asset Management chief noted the majority of millennials use passive vehicles such as index funds to buy stocks, meaning prices could become even more stretched.
"That 5:1 ratio will get much, much sillier in time," he said, adding that the imbalance is a "product of a paradigm" that could continue or be reversed.
"This is the knife's edge, BECAUSE we are at 5:1," Burry said. "It may go to 100:1. Or become -5:-1. But parabolas don't resolve sideways."
The Scion boss also slammed the Fed for downplaying the threat of inflation. He highlighted a Wall Street Journal article that noted Fed Chair Jerome Powell recently quoted from one of the central bank's more flattering inflation gauges, instead of another yardstick that showed a much higher reading and didn't register a decline between July and August.
"So, @federalreserve, are you lying to us, or are you lying to us?" Burry tweeted.
Moreover, the investor pointed to the recent backlash against two Fed officials for trading stocks, which spurred them to commit to selling their holdings. Burry noted they would likely realize handsome gains from their investments by cashing out now.
"Cute timing for an ethics outcry to force Fed Governors to sell stocks," he tweeted. "Too cute by half."
Burry, who has #BoycottAmazon and #BoycottFacebook among the hashtags in his Twitter bio, also urged his followers to stop buying products and services from the nation's leading tech companies.
"Boycott big tech," he said in a since-deleted tweet. "Whether a little or a lot, please do. For your health, and the health of others."
The investor flagged the recent "Facebook Files" investigation by the Wall Street Journal, which accused the social-media group's bosses of ignoring warnings about the damaging effects of their services on people. He also highlighted allegations that a tech executive instructed his employees to dig up dirt on Donald Trump to help Hillary Clinton's campaign, which were revealed in an indictment last week.
"Just because I can make a lot of money selling #NFTs, should I? No," Burry said, referring to non-fungible tokens. "Capitalists can show some restraint. #BigTech too."
Burry has previously warned that US stocks are dangerously overvalued and "the mother of all crashes" is coming. He has also dismissed the excitement around Elon Musk's Tesla, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and meme stocks as breathless hype and speculation.