Here’s our recommendation for five blogs to follow. More people should have been reading them for the insights into the economic meltdown they predicted, for help in reading the small print, for career advice, and for following lively, rough-and-tumble Wall Street conversations.
1. Michelle Leder’s Footnoted.org takes a closer look at the things that companies try to bury in their routine SEC filings. You can learn a lot about how to search through the small print. Some posts are simply quirky little factoids (like the fact that Warren Buffett’s son relies on ConAgra for his health insurance) while others tend to focus on more serious issues, like aggressive accounting, excessive compensation or questionable dealings that can often be indicative of more serious problems at a company. The Website is free, but subscribers to her newsletter get more detail on her searches through about 100 filing a day, including hidden footnote details, new lawsuits, unusual executive changes, and questionable deals and disclosures that can be early indicators of potential threats or opportunities. Her writing has appeared has appeared in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, Portfolio, and Slate, and on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, the Today Show.
2. Peter T. Treadway, The Dismal Optimist, took some heat for his controversial posting in July predicting the economic meltdown titled “The Black Swan Commeth.” The former Chief Economist at Fannie Mae called Fannie and Freddie “fake private companies” and recommended the opposite of what Congress actually did: “renationalize Fannie and Freddie, wipe out the common shareholders and then wind these companies down over a period of years. And throw in the Home Loan Banks for good measure.” His opinions are often controversial, but original, well researched, and thought provoking, such as his recent posting on the Asian Export Model that has come to a grinding halt–and what it means for US stocks in the coming year.
3. With more than 35 million visitors, Barry Ritholtz’s The Big Picture, is the internet’s top-ranked Business and Economics Website. The daily posts are sometimes gleaned from other sources, but they are always lively and topical. The no-holds-barred comments are often just as informative and give the impression you’ve just arrived at your Wall Street office where everyone is abuzz over the latest news. Ritholtz is a frequent commentator on CNBC, and regular guest on Kudlow & Company, Power Lunch and Fast Money. We can blame the short length on a lot of his postings lately on his deadlines for his forthcoming book, Bailout Nation.
4. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban knows his way around a financial statement. He may be less known for his web blog than for owning the Dallas Mavericks, or for Dancing with the Stars, or for staring in The Benefactor, his own TV reality show. However, the blog gives an inside view of the lively mind of an “American original.” Cuban has a lot to say about the economy: including, TARP, bailouts, Madoff, and politics (and why his candidate, Barack Obama is making a big mistake not including an entrepreneur among his top advisors). We particularly appreciate this posing about Madoff and the SEC and how XBRL can bring needed transparency. Of course, we should mention that some postings are refutations of the insider trading suit the SEC has filed against him.
5. The value of eFinancialCareers.com is obvious. We recommend the newsletter which gives you the overall picture of the job market and company activity that is useful to track, even if you are not looking for employment.
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