Skip to main content

The renewed selling we’ve seen in the stock market over the past week or so has inspired a couple of bold proclamations that have piqued my interest.

The most recent issue of Portfolio magazine laments the death of Wall Street with a cover photo of the famous Merrill Lynch bull keeled over on the ground. This is eerily reminiscent of the famous BusinessWeek cover that announced the “Death of Equities” right on the cusp of the biggest bull market in history.

At the same time, there has also arisen a cry of, “Warren Buffett has lost his touch,” or , “Warren Buffett is washed up,” as his ardent bullishness of late hasn’t immediately paid off. Doug Kass gave literary voice to this chorus in an article today at the Street.com.

The last time Warren was tarred and feathered this way was almost exactly 9 years ago, the last time he expressed any real opinion on the general direction of stock prices. At the time, he believed stock prices were too high to generate the long-term returns investors were expecting. His bearishness was publicly ridiculed just has his public bullishness is now.

Needless to say, my melon is ringing once again and I take these as very bullish, contrarian developments.

Sources:
The End
Michael Lewis
Portfolio.com
November 11, 2008

Warren Buffett Has Lost His Groove
Doug Kass
TheStreet.com
November 12, 2008

Mr. Buffett on the Stock Market
Warren Buffett and Carol Loomis
Fortune.com
November 22, 1999