By Antoine Gara | Forbes
With each dud of an earnings report from retailers such as Sears, and J.C. Penney, it appears hedge funds are positioning their bets for another great American mall die-off, something increasingly described as Wall Street’s next ‘Big Short.’ Like the subprime mortgages and cookie-cutter McMansions of yesteryear, investors are eyeing malls as dead money. Instead of spotting poor underwriting, they simply see a growing black hole amid the rise of Amazon.
There is no denying the pain investors are feeling across the sector, or the potential for economic disruption if stores are increasingly shuttered due to falling traffic.
