Barron's cover story on oil bubble popping is nuts

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs writes Monday that the cover story in the latest issue of Barron’s that argues that the oil price bubble is about to burst is faulty in its premise.

Fuchs writes, “‘Oil Bubble: When It Will Pop and Why,’ it said, accompanied by a big, black, oily bubble. I settled into my chair, ready to read a top-flight intellectual case for why the oil market was set to tumble.

“Because you, the savvy investor, must consider future movements in the prices of stocks, commodities and markets, that’s the type of journalism that works to your advantage. The other type, which is unfortunately more prevalent, is journalism that presents itself as courageous despite being rife with caveats and escape hatches. The latter type of writing suggests the writer has spent more energy protecting himself from the consequences of being wrong than figuring out what is right.

“So, I turned the page and saw this headline: ‘Bye, Bubble? The Price of Oil May Be Peaking.’

“This was the first sign of trouble. Barron’s had backpedaled from predicting oil’s demise to questioning its demise, suggesting the price ‘may’ be peaking. That said, this could just have been overly cautious headline writing.”

But it wasn’t. Read more here.Â