It went well, and Zorn spent less than thirty-six hours at home before flying to London, landing at Farnborough. The airport is thirty-five miles south-west of London, but only thirteen miles from the Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water, Surrey, a development of luxury homes scattered around the famous Wentworth Club and its three golf courses. Zorn had rented a newly built mansion there, valued at fifteen million pounds, for the summer. As he was driven past the wrought-iron gates and along the curving driveway that led to the front door Zorn grimaced. The building possessed exactly the kind of showy extravagance he most despised, from the classical portico that attempted to give its facade the grandeur of a stately home, to the shiny marble floors that were as vulgar as a Baghdad brothel and as slippery as an ice-rink. But it looked like the kind of place where a man of his wealth should reside, and that alone would serve to reassure both the media and his investors.
He went to bed early, taking an Ambien to counteract the jet lag, then rose at four in the morning. Half an hour later he was in the study, sitting before an array of screens that were an exact replica of the ones in his office back home in East Hampton. One of the screens was linked to a live TV feed. At 4.30 a.m. London time, the week’s first showing of his HARDtalk interview began. The host, Stephen Sackur, began by taking Zorn through a brief account of his early life and more recent business success. Then, about halfway through the conversation, he turned to the new fund.
‘Can you tell us what your investment strategy will be?’ Sackur asked.
Zorn laughed. ‘Nice try, but you know I can’t do that! Would the chief executive of Coca-Cola tell you the secret recipe? But I guess I can give you an idea of the way I see events panning out in a few key areas.’
Sackur’s high forehead wrinkled in an earnest, slightly puzzled-looking frown. ‘What kind of areas?’
‘Well, Stephen, it’s no secret that I gave evidence before a congressional committee a few months back, and that I warned of the dangers posed by large-scale eco-terrorism. I guess I hoped that I could send out a warning to oil companies, utilities and public authorities to be more vigilant. But that didn’t seem to work so well
… Can’t win ’em all, I guess.’
‘Maybe the threat is not as great as you fear?’
‘Sure, that’s a possibility. But I’m not buying it. My belief is that terrorism is a business like any other. When one guy comes up with something that works — you know, that gives him a competitive advantage — all the other guys have to play catch-up. That’s how ideas spread, how markets evolve. Well, the various Islamic forces around the world have been the market leaders in terror for the past ten to fifteen years. From a terrorist point of view things like suicide bombs, IEDs-’
‘Improvised explosive devices, like the ones used in Afghanistan
…’ Sackur interjected, for his audience’s benefit.
‘Exactly… the use of passenger jets as weapons of mass destruction… all these have been incredibly effective innovations.’
‘That almost sounds as though you approve of them.’
‘Not at all. I’m no friend of Al-Qaeda, believe me. I’m just stating a fact. These methods have achieved the aims all terrorists share: to kill, attract publicity, create an atmosphere of panic and fear and to force governments into, ah, excessive countermeasures that end up harming the exact same liberties we’re all trying to protect. So it figures that other people who are hostile to the West and what it stands for — democracy, consumer capitalism, continuous growth, all that good stuff — will pick up on these terror methods and start using them, too.’
‘And you think that ecological campaigners will start to do this?’
Sackur’s voice contained a note of scepticism. Zorn, however, chose to ignore it.
‘Sure.’
‘And are you putting your money, and your clients’ money where your mouth is?’ Sackur asked.
‘Absolutely,’ said Zorn, relishing the effect that his words would have, and knowing that there was much more to come. ‘I can tell you that I’ve taken a number of short positions that reflect my opinions.’
‘I’m sure investors will be very interested to hear that. So let’s cover another subject on which I’m sure they will welcome your insight. This week you’ll be coming to the UK. What is your view of the state of the British economy? The government is pursuing policies that have attracted support from some commentators and business leaders, but also tremendous opposition from trade unions and special interest groups, as well as their political opponents. Where do you stand?’
Zorn’s shrug conveyed an impression of relaxed impartiality. ‘I don’t stand anywhere politically. To be honest with you, Stephen, I’m not interested in political parties or ideology. I’m interested in situations as I see them, and the opportunities that confront me. But just to pick up on my earlier comments, I guess if I were talking to the British Prime Minister I’d advise him to take a real good look at the security of his national energy supplies. The UK is very vulnerable to external disruptions. Power-generating capacity has been allowed to decline drastically, relative to need. Plus, for political reasons the UK is way overcommitted to wind-power, which strikes me as just about the dumbest idea imaginable. I mean, the wind stops and you’re screwed… ah, can I say that?’
Sackur grimaced. ‘Not really, but-’
‘Well, anyway… the UK has to import most of its oil, its natural gas and increasingly its electrical power, which is cabled in from France. I mean, come on! Check out the history you have with the French. Are you sure you want their hand on the light switch?’ Zorn laughed engagingly, drawing a smile out of Sackur before adopting a much more serious expression again. ‘But that’s the story all over. British Energy, the nuclear power station operator, was sold to Electricite de France. A consortium of German companies is building four more nukes. And the designs they’re using will be either French or Japanese. So basically you’ve lost national control of your own power grid. To me that’s a disastrous situation. Britain is wide open to its very own 9/11, and when that attack comes, it-’
‘Not “if” it comes?’
‘No, Stephen, I believe that this is a case of “when”, and any major terrorist event will have consequences that go way beyond the actual incident itself. I can see major falls on the Footsie, led by the energy sector, instability in the price of oil, downward pressure on sterling, and knock-on effects in all the nations that have bought into the UK energy market. With the economic situation as fragile as it is, well, I have to say that I’m a bear on Britain, and also on specific sectors of both the US and European economies…’
Zorn had seen all he needed. He closed the screen and gave a grunt of satisfaction. This time there was no danger of the message failing to get through. The financial public relations firm he had retained to publicize the launch of his fund had emailed a press release, along with a three-minute extract from the interview containing all the key lines, to a carefully chosen list of news organizations, columnists and bloggers. Within minutes of the interview’s opening, the tweets had started. Now Zorn began adding fuel to the fire through his own newly opened @malzorn Twitter account.
‘Are u saying I shouldn’t be investing in #globaloilcorps?’ one follower asked.
Zorn replied, ‘Put it this way, I’d get out of @BP_America (again) if I were you! Or go short.’
Another follower gleefully remarked that, ‘@Number10gov must be sh*ttin bricks after #zornhardtalk.’
Zorn grinned, thought for a moment, then typed, ‘Just my way of giving the PM a Monday morning wake-up call — get him out of bed real fast today!’