Click Photo For VideoDennis Kneale Won't Shut Up About Financial Bloggers
Let me first give Kneale credit for voicing and quoting his vocal opposition. No other way to slice it, that's solid journalism, and demonstrates integrity.
I covered it in greater detail yesterday, but I will answer your question again. The reason for the strong response (criticism) to your excessively loud, public and bullish call is straightforward and has 2 components:
- It is wrong. Or more succinctly, you are wrong. It was discussed yesterday. Things aren't getting better. There will be no rebound. The new normal is some fraction of the old. Read Bill Gross from this morning. Learn it. Memorize it.
- This is the important part, please pay attention. Because of point #1, the market will eventually head much lower from here. (And in fact today we might have seen the start of that move.) So ordinary people who buy at these levels are going to get creamed, again. Now, examine your pulpit honestly for a moment. You have been given a visible role on CNBC and have millions of viewers every day who hear your words. What information you choose to present to viewers in your blocks of face time has a tremendous impact on their investment decisions. Most are likely still in cash and are anxious about missing a moving market. These are not professionals. These are my parents or yours. The markets are incredibly mystifying for the great majority of your viewers and so they rely on experts to help them make decisions. You, simply because of your pulpit, are considered one of these experts. But you are merely a journalist. You do not make your living from your ability to interpret the numbers and create a profitable trade. You report on people who interpret numbers and make trades. No personal offense intended. That is the nature of your business.
Nutshelled, my main contention about your exuberantly bullish call is that it is both wrong and harmful. In the blogosphere, where your audience is limited, you can be wildly bullish and hurt no one, because few are listening. But when you prattle on confidently in front of millions every night, and you turn out to be wrong months later, your bullish fun TV ratings game just cost thousands of families 30% of their portfolios.
Be aware of your power and pulpit, and please begin to use it more judiciously.
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