My regular readers know that I call them as I see them and I
give more than equal criticism to liberals and conservatives when they offer
poor or biased financial advice. I recently lambasted far left N.Y. Times'
columnist
Paul Krugman and his terribly misguided economic commentary.
Today, I turn my sights to Ann Coulter, a popular,
conservative political pundit. She actually has something in common with Mr.
Krugman. According to an analysis of her columns by
Lying In Ponds, she has
repeatedly made the top 10 lists of the most partisan columnists (for
conservatives; Krugman, of course for liberals).
Despite her enormous success, for some reason Ms. Coulter
has chosen to be a pitch woman for Mark Skousen's investment newsletter
Forecasts & Strategies. This is likely happening because Skousen (photo
below) is a fellow conservative and because she's pocketing some dough from her
endorsement. But, let's get to the facts and see why Ms. Coulter is seriously
misguided on this matter and why you should steer clear of her investment
advice.
Coulter Gushes About Skousen's Predictive Prowess
In the mass mailing ("My #1 Way to Profit as Obama Destroys Capitalism") which I got a copy of (see below),
Coulter says the following about Skousen:
...I've got just the man to help you take control of your own
investments and put your mind at ease about your financial future.
His name is Dr. Mark Skousen, a free-market economist and
editor of the investment newsletter Forecasts & Strategies -- and he just
might be the smartest financial advisor working today.
How so? For one thing, unlike the Wall Street Wizards who
"somehow just missed" the oncoming financial collapse, Dr. Skousen
actually predicted it almost two years in advance, in 2006, when he warned his
Forecasts & Strategies subscribers that "we clearly are headed for
fiscal disaster" (and then showed them how to protect themselves).
But that's just one among hundreds of uncannily accurate
market calls Dr. Skousen has made in the 30 years since he launched Forecasts
& Strategies -- including:
* Last March he
called the exact bottom of the market, telling his subscribers that
"stocks are a screaming buy." In the four weeks following, the Dow
soared a remarkable 24.5%.
* Just weeks
before the NASDAQ collapsed in 2000, he warned his subscribers that tech stocks
were dangerously overvalued.
* He told his
subscribers in 1995 that the NASDAQ would double, and then double again --
which is exactly what it did.
* He called the
Gulf War of 1990 "a turning point for U.S. stocks" -- and the Dow
subsequently began a bull market that didn't end for nearly ten years.
* And he issued a
"sell everything" recommendation to his Forecasts & Strategies
subscribers just 41 days before the stock market crash of 1987 -- then told
them to get fully invested again several weeks later, just in time for the
recovery.
...Bottom line: Trusting Wall Street's "We didn't think
markets went down" Money Men to manage your money is like trusting Bill
Clinton with your daughter. Better to take your financial affairs into your own
hands, with the expert guidance of Mark Skousen in Forecasts & Strategies.
This sounds pretty enticing, huh?
Apparently Ms. Coulter didn't do any homework or due
diligence on Skousen because if she had, she would have run in the other
direction.
Skousen's Actual Track Record
Mark Hulbert, who has independently tracked investment newsletter's
recommendations and performance for decades has plenty of helpful data on
Skousen's newsletter. And the record is not kind to Skousen. Over the past 17
years, Skousen's recommendations have generated average annual returns of just 3.8
percent per year versus 7.0 percent per year for the Wilshire 5000 Index. So,
he's underperformed by more than 3 percent per year.
Also, contrary to Coulter's claim that Skousen not only
predicted the 2008 financial crisis but also told his subscribers how to
protect themselves, Hulbert's analysis of Skousen's recommendations during that
period show that Skousen's portfolio slid 53 percent versus a 43 percent loss
for Wilshire 5000.
Another troubling insight regarding Skousen from Hulbert is
the sheer number of model portfolios which Skousen has discontinued over the
years. Just as some mutual fund companies shutter under performing funds (and
often merge them into others with better records), disreputable investment
newsletters engage in a similar practice. Fortunately, Hulbert holds
newsletters accountable for all their recommendations in his composite
rankings.
Here's what Hulbert's recent report on Skousen's newsletter
had to say regarding his various model portfolios:
Mark Skousen has been publishing his Forecasts &
Strategies newsletter since the early 1980s. However, for much of that period
he did not translate his investment insights into either a specific model
portfolio or sufficiently clear and complete advice for us to construct one for
him. In the early 1990s he inaugurated the first of several model portfolios
that he has offered, and the HFD began tracking his newsletter in 1994.
The list of portfolios that Skousen has offered in his
newsletter has changed over the years, however. The portfolio that he created in the
early 1990s, for example, his "Simplified No Load Portfolio," was discontinued in
early 2002. Two additional portfolios were created in the mid 1990s. The first, named
by Skousen as the "Flying Five" portfolio, is constructed out of the five lowest-price
issues among the ten highest yielding stocks that make up the Dow Jones
Industrials Average. The second of these mid-1990s creations was Skousen's "Growth"
portfolio. However, Skousen dissolved this portfolio in late 1997 in favor of
two new portfolios: a "Simplified Closed-End Portfolio" and a "Simplified Stock Portfolio."
These two successor portfolios were themselves discontinued in early 2002, along
with another portfolio that Skousen created in the late 1990s-a "High Income"
portfolio.
In 2000 the HFD began monitoring another now ceased portfolio,
"Skousen's Favorite Income Portfolio." Another portfolio, the "Short-Term
Portfolio," created in 2002, is still in existence today. Finally, two other
portfolios, the "Anti-Terrorist Portfolio," created in 2003, and the "Mad Money
Portfolio," created in 2004, have both been discontinued now as well.
One of Skousen's longer lived portfolios the now-defunct
"Short-Term No-Load Portfolio" was tracked by the HFD from January 1, 1994,
through March 31, 2002.
During this time the portfolio underperformed the Wilshire
5000 index, 3.9% to 12.5% (annualized). This portfolio underperformed the stock
market on a risk-adjusted basis as well.
The single portfolio for which the HFD has the most
performance data is Skousen's "Flying Five" portfolio, which the HFD began
following on 1/1/1997. Since then (through 8/31/2010), it has lagged the stock
market, with a 2.1% annualized gain vs. a 4.7% gain for the Wilshire 5000 Total
Market Index. It has lagged the Wilshire 5000 on a risk-adjusted basis as well.
Moral of the Story: Beware taking financial and investing advice from pundits who are recognized as experts in other fields. Just as liberals who agree with Paul Krugman's political views are at risk of following his poor financial advice, conservatives who adore Coulter are at risk of being duped into following her investing endorsements.
My #1 Way to Profit as Obama Destroys Capitalism
|
Dear Fellow Conservative,
"Somehow we just missed that home prices don't go up forever."
No,
that's not your idiot brother-in-law explaining how his four home
equity loans eventually landed him penniless on a futon in your rec
room. It's the billionaire CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon.
Dimon
was explaining to Congress's Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission how he
and his fellow Magic Men crashed the entire U.S. economy and then turned
to taxpayers for a bail out.
Really? So Dimon's defense to Wall
Street's utter recklessness with other people's money is to claim that
Wall Street doesn't really understand how the market works? Again:
Really?
But no one on the Commission challenged Dimon because,
while the Commission's stated purpose is "to examine the causes of the
financial crisis," its actual purpose is to conceal those causes --
especially the federal government's own central role in creating the
housing bubble.
Further proof that the Commission isn't serious:
It has not yet recommended that the President resign immediately.
(Obama's next idea for fighting unemployment is to institute a weekly
census.)
Instead, we get make-believe "hearings" where executives
like Mr. Dimon admit to egregious stupidity. The Magic Men are happy to
play along -- as long as they get to keep their tax-supported bonuses.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not suggesting that everyone on Wall Street is as dumb as Jamie claims they are.
What
I am suggesting, however, is that whether the "best and brightest" on
Wall Street turn out to be stupid or dishonest doesn't matter to our
retirement accounts. Isn't it time we stopped trusting them with all our
money? And if we don't feel quite competent to manage it on our own (I
sure don't), shouldn't we find someone whose character, reputation, and
financial expertise we
can rely on?
I think so. And if
you're with me on that, I've got just the man to help you take control
of your own investments and put your mind at ease about your financial
future.
His name is Dr. Mark Skousen, a free-market economist and editor of the investment newsletter
Forecasts & Strategies -- and he just might be the smartest financial advisor working today.
How
so? For one thing, unlike the Wall Street Wizards who "somehow just
missed" the oncoming financial collapse, Dr. Skousen actually predicted
it
almost two years in advance, in 2006, when he warned his
Forecasts & Strategies subscribers that "we clearly are headed for fiscal disaster" (and then showed them how to protect themselves).
But that's just one among
hundreds of uncannily accurate market calls Dr. Skousen has made in the 30 years since he launched
Forecasts & Strategies -- including:
- Last March he called the exact bottom
of the market, telling his subscribers that "stocks are a screaming
buy." In the four weeks following, the Dow soared a remarkable 24.5%.
- Just weeks before the NASDAQ collapsed in 2000, he warned his subscribers that tech stocks were dangerously overvalued.
- He told his subscribers in 1995 that the NASDAQ would double, and then double again -- which is exactly what it did.
- He called the Gulf War of 1990
"a turning point for U.S. stocks" -- and the Dow subsequently began a
bull market that didn't end for nearly ten years.
- And he issued a "sell everything" recommendation to his Forecasts & Strategies
subscribers just 41 days before the stock market crash of 1987 -- then
told them to get fully invested again several weeks later, just in time
for the recovery.
(It's not a financial
prediction exactly, but Dr. Skousen also correctly forecast that Rima
Fakih would become the first Muslim woman to win the Miss U.S.A. contest
after she wowed the audience in the burka competition and knocked them
out in the talent portion of the competition by not driving.)
Then
there's my favorite Mark Skousen prediction -- the one that launched
his career back in the early '80s, when he defied the so-called experts
by predicting "Reaganomics will work." Which, of course, it did -- and,
come to think of it, will again, when we finally bring it back.
But until that blessed day arrives, take comfort in this:
Mark Skousen knows how to make you money even during turbulent economic times.Bottom line:
Trusting Wall Street's "We didn't think markets went down" Money Men to
manage your money is like trusting Bill Clinton with your daughter.
Better to take your financial affairs into your own hands, with the
expert guidance of Mark Skousen in
Forecasts & Strategies.
The
cost? About a tankful of gas for your SUV -- or two tankfuls if the
Democrats push through "Cap and Trade," or as it's formally known, "The
Huge New Tax on Everything Under the Sun Act of 2010."
Sincerely,
Ann Coulter
P.S.
Mark has just revealed a unique investment opportunity. An investment
that measured over a 3-year, 5-year, 10-year, or even 20-year period has
never, EVER lost money. In fact, during 2009 alone, it rose more than
50%! And since inception, it's risen more than 800% and still going!
He's prepared a short presentation that includes all the details about
"The Investment That Never Loses Money" -- plus 5 more great investments in his
FREE "Crisis-Proof Portfolio" -- that shows you how to take advantage of it.
P.P.S. You don't have take my word about Mark Skousen -- listen to a few folks who've already subscribed to
Forecasts & Strategies at my recommendation:
"Thanks very much, Ann! Even though it has been a short time, I have
grown my investment by 25% in the past 4 months of following Mr.
Skousen's recommendations." --
Steve L. "Thank GOD for Ann Coulter's outspoken patriotism and Dr. Skousen's financial forecasts." --
Wayne S. "My portfolio has only increased, no downs since Mark! God bless you, Ann! I knew his had to be a good tip!" --
Rhondi E. "Thank you, best decision I ever made." --
Wallace M.