Has John Paulson lost his magic touch?

``Paulson & Co, which operates out of offices near New York's Radio City Music Hall, racked up the loss after shares in Sino-Forest, a Chinese timber company in which it had invested since at least 2008, crumbled... For an investor who made his fortune placing most of his chips on a doomsday scenario in 2006 and 2007, it's his optimism about the US and wider global economic recovery that, at least in part, is now proving expensive. It's a bullish view that saw him snap up stakes in some of America's banks in 2009, buy shares in gold producers to protect against the threat of inflation and reportedly argue that there's never been a better time to buy a house in America. ''