Joe Hagan has written what I can only describe as a paid for hit job on Zero Hedge as well us "lesser" bloggers. Read it yourself because I am not going to paste any of its offensive, sellout gibberish on this blog. What I will say is that Zero Hedge is required reading for me whether I'm blogging or investing. Do I agree with everything that the Tylers say? No. However, I respect the level of research and expertise that goes into everything they put out. I find it funny that Hagan finds it funny that one of the Zero-Hedgers referred to Tyler as one of many persons. Hagan thinks that that statement represents the babbling of a schizophrenic nut job. If Hagan actually knew about finance and read Zero Hedge he would know that it is damn near impossible for ONE person to not only be an expert in every corner of finance, but also for ONE person to put out the 24/7 production ZH puts out!
What really gets me is how much Joe Hagan doesn't get. First of all, Hagan takes a very broad and insulting swipe at financial bloggers. Apparently we are all a bunch of crackpots and malcontents. While this may be true, we also happen to know what the hell we are talking about. We aren't journalists, and despite what Hagan says about us, we respect the journalist's craft. We respect real reporters doing real digging to get a real story. However, what we do is opine. Often we take a story off Bloomberg News that more or less reports a news item and then using our expertise, we give you a very informed (hopefully) opinion.
For instance I can say this with a reasonable amount of certainty. Last year there were very few people in this world that knew about and could write about the inner workings of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and how they related to and contributed to the meltdown of 2008. I was one of those people. I wrote about it on this blog all through 2008, warned you every step of the way from the early Spring that both GSEs were going under and told you how, why and most importantly, to get the hell out of the way. Maybe I am a nut job but in that specific area I knew exactly what I was talking about while professional journalists did not. The same could be said for Richie's calls on AIG, which started back in February 2008. Richie knew because the credit markets were his game. He traded with AIG! He also knew the Goldman prop desk did the same trades with AIG which is why we were one of the first sites to call the AIG bailout a bailout of Goldman Sachs. Gretchen Morgenson over at the New York Times, kind of knew but she let Goldie wriggle off the hook. We didn't because we KNEW the trades they had on!
Anyway, enough of Hagan. He is like Fredo to us now.
And he is very upset that he was called a d-bag.
Posted by: eric | October 02, 2009 at 03:07 PM
I think what Hagan is trying to say is that a story only matters if a very important news person gets the scoop.
If a blogger is the first to break a story, then it the story doesn't matter.
The best stories of course, are broken by Joe Hagan himself. If he scoops it and authors it, then it is one of the very most important stories, to have ever been told. This piece on how bloggers are all stupid idiots, is one of the most important documents ever written by anyone.
Ultimately, a story's value is decided by the ego behind it. A zeppelin sized ego like Joe's, makes for the very best in stories.
Posted by: weaseldog | October 02, 2009 at 02:31 PM
Cost structure DEFINITELY minimal Divvy!
Posted by: eric | September 29, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Hagan no different than the rubes on CNBC ridiculing financial blogs . There are only so many people in the world who even care / understand " financial news " to begin with and folks like Hagan , CNBC , print newspapers , etc all know they can't afford to lose more eyeballs to on-line blogs that they especially resent because the costs structures are so minimal
Posted by: divvyman | September 29, 2009 at 11:53 AM
He's the: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqLgyvX7duw
Posted by: williambanzai7 | September 29, 2009 at 08:40 AM
"I wonder what Hagan's motive was?"
Likely the same motive as any other MSM talking head. No one wants to acknowledge the economic storm we're haplessly marching into. They think they can talk their way out of reality.
They'll soon see otherwise.
Posted by: Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg | September 29, 2009 at 08:12 AM
Yes, he's a: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zrNf6-EP3U
Posted by: williambanzai7 | September 29, 2009 at 07:49 AM
Honored to be in their company Snoop! I wonder what Hagan's motive was? He also took a shot at Matt Taibbi in his piece.
As the late great Omar Little said in Season I of "The Wire" "You come after the king baby, you best not miss!"
Posted by: eric | September 28, 2009 at 07:46 PM
You know, Eric, I'm a regular reader of ZH, as well as Monkey Business, and while it's clear Hagan took some shots at ZH (like we'd expect anyway, from a lefty author), I thought it was very interesting, to say the least.
My high opinion of the work (public service!) being done by ZH is intact & undamaged.
Posted by: Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg | September 28, 2009 at 02:24 PM