Doug Kass of TheStreet.com writes about the problems with listening to stock market pundits who appear on business television.
Kass writes, “The investment world and the media that cover it demand endless opinions that most people have limited information on. I describe this as being 3-miles wide and 1-inch deep. Sometimes the respondents just make answers up. Other times the questions and answers are simply scripted in advance and the rapid-fire responses are mistaken for thoughtful and deep analysis. (Which they’re not.)
“My pet peeve is the singular question that’s routinely asked of business TV’s ‘talking heads’ as they parade before the media at 3:45 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. every day (and again in premarket conversations the following morning). They’re always asked the same inane question: ‘Why did the market do what it did today?’
“In a market that’s without memory from day to day (and that often ends the session based on the last program standing), that’s an impossible question to answer. It also underscores the simple-minded attitude of the questioner, who — instead of asking probing questions — asks lame, simplistic and standard ones.”
Read more here.
