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]
Financial Advisor Fees: Bend Over, America
The Motley Fool takes a swing at the financial services industry, pointing out that we spent $1,182 for every man, woman and child in this country last year on financial advisor fees. The total tab? $350 billion. That’s a lot of enchiladas, baby. Of course, you can’t read the article unless you shell out $149 a year to subscribe to The Fool’s Stock Advisor newsletter. Pot meet kettle, kettle meet pot.
Hedge Fund Heavyweight Registers as Lobbyist
Reflecting the increasing regulatory scrutiny that hedge funds will be facing, the $14 billion Cerberus Capital Management has decided it’s time to have one foot inside the beltway. The firm already made headlines in 2000 when it Mr. Potatoe-head himself, former Veep Dan Quayle, to its advisory board. Now the firm has hired Billy Cooper away from lobbying firm Patton Boggs and taken the step of registering the firm as a lobbyist.
Cerberus Becomes Lobbyst [DealBook]
