Paul Kedrosky posted a question this week, asking Why are Financial Bloggers so Bearish? Check it out as its a very good question, and observations. He writes,
“…most financial blogs — and their commenters, in particular — are bearish way past that point, with they and their commenters in an echo chamber muttering darkly about canned food, plunge protection teams, a bullet-less Fed, and on and on. It’s bleak and apocalyptic at the best of times, and now it’s a relentless and somewhat bizarre mixture of Calvinist moralizing and noisy negative-triumphalism.”
His commenters also offer some insight as well.
“Barry Ritholtz + Roubini have made their livings as the token bearish guys. Someone wants the bear case they go to those sites. Journalists want a bear quote they go to them. It’s all a marketing game. It’s like why the New York Times slants for a left-leaning audience to capture that market niche. Barry Ritholtz slants his commentary for a bearish-leaning audience”
“Financial bloggers are bearish for three reasons that I can discern:
1) Most started blogging in a hyper bull market, it was MUCH easier to build a name for themselves by pointing out the contrarian viewpoints. The world didn’t need a bunch of bloggers telling them to buy the Four Horsemen, to buy BRICS, to play the LBO/IPO resurgence; because we had 25-30 sell-side shills doing that already. Read the rest of this entry »