Joshua M. Brown - Clash of the financial pundits: how the media influences your investment decisions for better or worse

Copyright 2014 by Joshua M. Brown and Jeff Macke. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-181790-5
MHID: 0-07-181790-5

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JEFF:

For Anne, John, and Helena

JOSH:

For my partners Barry, Michael, and Kris.
Possunt, quia posse videntur.

I n 2008 I was hosting the CNBC show Fast Money when the financial crisis hit. As the world unraveled, Jeff Macke was one of the first pundits to grasp the depths of the crisis and explain it to our audience. With a keen eye and lacerating wit, Macke helped expose the phonies and warned investors that many of the officials rescuing us from the crisis were just shifting the risk from the banks to ordinary Americans. When many financial journalists were cheering from the sidelines, Macke was one of a handful of people with the brains and guts to go on air and tell investors the truth night after night.

Now that stocks have come back, theres a whole new crop of false prophets and scammers getting rich off Main Street. In this book, Macke and Josh Brown take readers behind the scenes of financial media and into the minds of pundits who are really trying to help the audience. The result is a book thats funny, useful, and surprisingly moving.

The reality of finance is that the tables will always be tilted against the little guy. Theres more information coming out of the financial media than ever, but most of the pundits you see today are going to disappear at the first sign of another bear market. Financial education is the only defense for Main Street investors. With this book, Jeff Macke and Josh Brown share firsthand insights that will help readers separate the sages from the shysters before the next crisis hits.

DYLAN RATIGAN

JOSH:

Right after I promised my wife that I wouldnt blow another summer writing a book again, I quickly went under contract and began work on this one. Thanks to Sprinkles, TJ, and the Nugget for understanding and tiptoeing around me while I banged my head against the desk.

Thanks to everyone at McGraw-Hill for a second go-round. Was I easier to deal with this time?

Thanks to my dad, who read me to sleep each nighteven when I shoved books about Greek mythology into this lap, and to my mom, who encouraged my storytelling even when the teachers told her not to.

Thanks to John Melloy for bringing me into the mainstream media and to Lydia Thew for keeping me there. Thanks to Melissa, Scott, Jamie, Shannan, Lisa, Re-Essa, Patty, Katie, Courtney, and all of the talented producers I get to work with each week. Its a pleasure and an honor to be a part of the most exciting show on finanical television.

Thanks to Stephanie Link for all her help behind the scenes. Thanks to all of our interview subjects for being so enthusiastic about the project.

Lastly, thanks to all the readers of The Reformed Broker blog, viewers of CNBCs Fast Money, and my friends on the Twitter. Your encouragement continues to mean the world to me.

JEFF:

A special thanks to Guy Adami, Pete Najarian, and Karen Finerman, my fellow members in the Secret Society of the original Fast Money. Guy has made a wildly underrated contribution to the financial well-being of anyone who has ever watched the show. Pete and Karen are simply two of the kindest, most generous people Ive ever met. It would take a whole book to properly describe either of them.

Diane Galligan and scores of Yahoos past and present deserve credit (or blame) for giving me the opportunity to come out of exile when I was damaged goods. Without that platform, Id be just another guy talking to his television set.

Thanks to Knox Huston at McGraw-Hill and to Josh for putting up with months of my lousy drafts and endless tweaking. I wasnt at all sure I wanted to tell this story and it showed. Thank you to Janice Race at McGraw-Hill and to Rebecca Stropoli at Yahoo for cleaning up my horrid punctuation and love of vulgarity.