Andrew Lahde's Lahde Capital, a small California-based hedge fund, has done just that by making big bets against subprime in 2007. A quick glance over the recent headlines indicates that that has been a very, very, very profitable bet.
Given that he had the conviction to go short with leverage, this is probably a guy worth paying attention to. The Financial Times has some quotes from his letter to shareholders, where he announces a return of a capital, saying that "The risk/return characteristics are far less attractive than in the past." Here's some other stuff from the letter:
"Our entire banking system is a complete disaster. In my opinion, nearly every major bank would be insolvent if they marked their assets to market." (emphasis added)
That's pretty scary stuff. Mr. Lahde is predicting a recession, and sees a collapse in the value of bonds backed by commercial property loans on the horizon -- mortgage crisis part deux.
I found a biography of Mr. Lahde in the executive summary for a fund called Dalton Investments (PDF). Assuming it's the same one (also located in California, making me think it is), here's a bit more about him:
Mr. Lahde has extensive experience in company and industry analysis, particularly in the telecom and business
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