Really, I don’t know why I subscribe at all. Except, maybe, that it wakes me up better than two stiff mugs of French Roast. Here’s why:
- The editorial and op-ed pages make me chew the scenery. Aaaargh, I could live with the relentlessly right wing editorials and the tired Milton Friedman economics. After all, it’s Murdoch’s paper. But Op-Ed is supposed to provide alternative views, ya know? Like a think tank other than the Hoover Institute or the American Enterprise? Like maybe Brookings? The last time I saw an author from Brookings I was so surprised I spewed my coffee on the page and had to read it online.
- It’s relentlessly downbeat. I mean, there’s NEVER positive news. Great jobs data? Well, it ONLY improved X%. 75% of people will pay less for health care? Headline is: 25% of [the richest] people will pay more. Consumer confidence up? Oh yeah, those guys must be reading USA Today.
- They have never once published a flattering picture of Barack Obama. When I worked in Washington, my organization’s lobbyist used to make a hobby of photographing members of Congress biting sandwiches. (He started out with photos of them picking their noses, but gave it up as too easy to get.) The pictures he had of our eminent legislators baring their fangs adorned a whole wall of our offices. But seriously, couldn’t they get a decent picture once a year of our Prez? After all, it must be a challenge to get a photo of Mitch McConnell that doesn’t look like a fly just went up his nose, and they’ve managed that. According to WSJ, Barack Obama has never, ever done a single thing right in his entire life, much less the presidency. And Michelle only appears when she’s spending money.
- The proofreading is terrible.
But now for the top reason, and the point of the post:
5. No matter what investment you’ve made, it’s the wrong one at the wrong time. For years I’ve been reading about the demise of the bond market, the crisis in TIPS, how great gold is, emerging markets up, emerging markets down. Listen to this and you can be sure of one thing—the fat cat traders and bankers that support WSJ will make plenty of dough off the trading costs of churning your account. And here’s some headline news: Investments Go Up and Down.
For an awfully long time I kept reading how it was dangerous to invest because who knew how low stocks could go? Then it was, Europe is down the tubes. Now it’s TIPS that will be tanking forever. That’s why you hold an appropriate asset market basket—some will always be “going down” while others are “going up”—or at least tanking less if we’re talking about 2008-2009. And yes, right after you invest some of them will take a turn south—it’s inevitable. You’re balancing risk with reward, and it’s average total return over the long term, not this month or this quarter. Want to benefit from the wisdom of WSJ? Go read Jonathan Clements’ book The Little Book of Main Street Money. He used to be their personal finance columnist.
And my advice? Stick to the last section. They have pretty good drink recipes and book reviews.
