Categories: OLD Media Moves

Seven classic bad calls in business journalism

Charles Wallace of DailyFinance.com has compiled a list of the seven worst “calls” made in business journalism, further proof that business reporters should never get in the prognostication business.

Here is part of his list:

2.Time magazine anointed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos “Man of the Year” on Dec. 27, 1999. Just a week earlier, Amazon stock hit a high of $113 a share. By Oct. 1, 2001 the stock was trading for $5.51.

3. Time ran a cover story on June 13, 2005, called “Home $weet Home,” which explained “why we’re going gaga over real estate.” If you went out and bought a condo on that news, you could be underwater: Average house prices plummeted 28% in the ensuing five years.. (And TIme‘s cover this past Sept. 11, “The Case Against Homeownership,” may be a signal to buy.)

4. Time has also been behind the curve on the auto industry. Its Nov. 9, 1992, cover was entitled “Can GM Survive in Today’s World?” After that piece ran, GM stock rose 60%. This was followed a year later, in December 1993, by “Autos: Back on the Fast Track,” when the industry really began to run out of gas.

5. The Economist, ever the highbrow, can still be a contrary indicator. In March 1999, the magazine published a cover story headlined “Drowning in Oil.” “The world is awash with the stuff and it is likely to remain so,” the Economist predicted. At the time, oil sold for the rock-bottom price of $10 a barrel. It’s $83 today.

Read more here to find out who is No. 1.