Book Review: How Wall Street Is Screwing You Over
The Times whips off a positively glowing review of former Business Week reporter Fary Weiss’ latest book, Wall Street Versus America: The Rampant Greed and Dishonesty That Imperil Your Investments. In case the title was too subtle, here how Times reviewer Janet Maslin sums it all up:
Targets on [Weiss’] dartboard include ineffectual regulators, paid market researchers, de facto bribes involving municipal bonds, the hidden costs of mutual funds and the mystique of hedge fund managers. Another target: you, Buster, regardless of whether you care about investment practices and “even if you keep your money in a passbook savings account or a tin box in the backyard.” Mr. Weiss bemoans “a generation of Americans who sign papers they don’t read and buy investment products they don’t understand from brokers whose backgrounds they don’t bother to research.”
Oh, this is such terrible news! You mean Wall Street isn’t looking out for investors’ best interests?
Review: Wall Street Versus America [NY Times]
Daltrey Sells Out, Signs On For Hedge Fund Gig
It’s always a little depressing to hear of aging rock stars stooping to perform at business functions. There’s a certain loss of dignity implicit in the whole arrangement. So we were saddened to see this photo of Roger Daltrey and Albourne “Mayor” Sam Lewis grinning in anticipation of the Who lead singer’s upcoming gig at Hedgestock in June. If you’re going to sell out, we guess, you might as well do it with hedge fund consultants Albourne which is run by some pretty cool cats. Better than, say, playing a Goldman gig.
Much-Hyped Blog Breaks Wind Ground This Morning
Not that they need it--we’ve never seen a blog get so much pre-launch publicity (well, except for the Huffington Post)--but we’d like to extend a warm, snarky welcome to the new kid on Wall Street blog block, Deal Breaker. Overseen by the woman who put Gawker on the editorial map, the site promises to offer much entertainment--and even a little news--over the months to come. See you in hell!
Editor’s Letter [Deal Breaker]
Paper Deflating Cramer a Bit of a Stretch
A study out of Northwestern U. is claiming that Jim Cramer’s stock picks are a losing proposition:
Taken together, our results suggest that the aggregate losers in our event study are the Mad Money viewers who decide to buy the recommended securities when the markets open the following day, and that the winners are the market makers and arbitraguers who sell the overpriced recommended stocks on day 1, as well as the traders who sell the recommended stocks on days 2 through 12.
Hey, we like to take pot-shots at Cramer as much as the next guy, but this paper doesn’t hold mush water in our opinion: It only looks at recommendations made over an 11-week period, hardly a fair time-frame over which to judge someone’s investing acumen.
Sad Money? [Deal Book]
