T. Boone Pickens speaks out on the likelihood of rising oil prices and alternative energy are often as anyone will listen. Based on data about his energy fund, he has lost money on most of his own investment decisions.
Billionaire bankruptcy analyst Wilbur Ross is often asked about the capital markets and the broader financial markets. His is a vulture investor, and it is hard to see why that qualifies him to know about anything else.
According to Reuters, George Soros recently said “the downward trend in the financial crisis is easing and national economic stimulus packages are starting to work.” Soros is a hedge fund manager and there is no evidence that he knows any more about the future of the global economy than an economics professor at Yale or Princeton.
Warren Buffett is repeatedly asked about the state of the financial markets. His company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), had a bad year, calling his ability to be an expert on the capital markets into question.
Famous businessmen are regularly asked about their views on the recession, when it will end, and why it will end. There is little if any evidence that billionaires, who have often made there money based on a narrow set of investments and their expertise in fairly narrow parts of the financial markets, have superior views on economic issues that are complex, global, and macro.
But, maybe the media does not have anywhere else to turn.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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