The question I have is, "Does Dennis Kneale truly believe this OR does he purposely throw himself out there as a controversial figure to boost ratings?" Additionally, I love how Dennis treats the Merrill research report like it just came down from the Almighty! I knew Wall Street economists who used to do things like this. They would watch what the pack was doing, pick their spot and then go against the tide. They wouldn't do this necessarily because they believed in the contrarian view. Rather, the upside to being right on this call was greater than the downside. All economists come out with a clunker from time to time. Those clunkers seem to carry a lot less weight than the one gigantic contrarian call that ends up being correct. Those correct contrarian calls make you a big big staaaaah!
Exhibit A: Stores sold out
http://blog.mlive.com/sagbusiness_impact/2008/12/large_JNS.EmptyStores.jpg
Posted by: williambanzai7 | July 15, 2009 at 01:17 PM
Well I am not sure if the recession is over...but I do give a man credit for sticking his neck out there. MonkeyBusinessBlog does the same actually. Do not fault Dennis for reporting that Merrill says the ression is over. That is what reporters do...they report. You can fault his innacurate opinion, but all he has really done is to find someone else who believes as he does. Now I do have some problems with the report coming from Merrill...arent these the same yahoos that got taken out by BAC? They aint so smart now are they?
Posted by: Bruce Weinstein | July 15, 2009 at 12:53 PM