Bull!

bull!

 

A Bill Fleckenstein Pick!

To end on a lighter note, folks should sprint and do whatever it takes to get their hands on a new book titled Bull! 144 Stupid Statements From the Market’s Fallen Prophets, written by Greg Eckler and L. M. Mac Donald…. this is one of those rare finds that’s not too long, right on point, hilarious and well-written. It’s an easy-to-read history of quotes from many of the mania’s pundits, complete with follow-up comments by Eckler and Mac Donald that at times had me laughing so hard I literally cried. I promise you, whatever the effort to obtain this book will be well worth it. –Bill Fleckenstein

Suze Orman. James Cramer. Louis Rukeyser. Lou Dobbs, and a host of other personalities, CEOs, analysts and politicians said the dumbest possible things at the worst possible time. They begged us “not to panic”, encouraged “strong stomachs” repeated “buy-and-hold” and “earnings don’t matter” endlessly as $8 trillion dollars fled the market. Bull! is a loving scrapbook of those steaming loads of near-forgotten stupidity. Take a walk down Mania Lane, even if the subjects of this book would rather you just kept walking their plank with a blindfold on.

Who touted the Time Warner AOL merger as “profound?”
Who advised “Enron is certainly for real?”
Which bull called SEC chair Arthur Levitt “an anarchist?”
Who asked “JDSU is trading at 200 times earnings, but is that overvalued? I don’t know.”
Who said “techs are all overvalued but that’s not a factor right now.”
Who scared Americans by warning them that it was “dangerous” to be out of the market?

Fool you once, shame on me. Fool you twice…. Consider yourself warned.