Here is a funny blog post on the Reformed Broker about how mainstream magazines often write the same investing articles, year-in and year-out. I should know. I used to write them at SmartMoney, where I was a senior editor.
The Reformed Broker is a blog headed up by Joshua Brown, "a New York City-based investment advisor for high net worth individuals, charitable foundations, retirement plans and corporations," as it says on the homepage. Anyway, the article is pretty funny. Here is a snippet:
Does it seem like you're reading the same financial magazine and newspaper articles year after year with the same reheated and rehashed patter?
You are.
Here's a few snatches from a Fortune Magazine article published on December 26th 2005. It even had one of those "Built To Last - 10 Sturdy Stocks for blah blah blah..." titles on it. I don't mean to pick on Fortune, it could just as easily have been SmartMoney or whatever the other ones are called. TheStreet.com is still doing this nonsense day in, day out but online - amazing.
Anyway, read these little snatches and tell me they couldn't be repeated verbatim in any article published this morning...
In a recent letter to investors, Legg Mason fund manager Bill Miller ticked off the positives: "The economy is strong, balance sheets are as liquid as they have ever been, profit margins and return on equity are hovering near all-time highs, earnings are growing double-digit, companies are buying back stock in record amounts, mergers and acquisitions are happening at nice premiums to prevailing prices." To Miller, the conclusion is obvious: "I think the market is going up."