James B. Stewart has a Times column complaining about stock analysts who were too optimistic about the price of Apple stock. He quotes one source insisting that government regulators should measure the performance of the stock analysts and hold them "accountable." It goes on about the conflicts of interests that afflict analysts.
Entirely absent from the column is any degree of self-reflection by Mr. Stewart in regard to his own role forecasting the movements of Apple stock, or any analysis of the role of other financial journalists. In my view, they are just as bad as the stock analysts, maybe worse.
Mr. Stewart does not mention, for example, a January 16, 2011 column he wrote for the Wall Street Journal in a week when Apple shares hit $345. "I feel comfortable taking some profits," Mr. Stewart advised his readers at that time. The column was headlined "Are Apple's Best Years Over?" Readers who took that advice missed out on an Apple dividend payment and also missed out on a subsequent rise in the stock, which rose as high as $705 and closed Friday at $474, 37 percent higher than when Mr. Stewart told Wall Street Journal readers he felt comfortable selling it.
Other financial journalists and publications were off (at least so far) on the optimistic side of things. Forbes ran an article asserting that "it seems quite possible" that Apple stock would reach $1000 a share. CNBC and Bloomberg Businessweek and Dow Jones' Marketwatch also passed along $1000 estimates for Apple share prices more or less uncritically.
Where is Mr. Stewart's call to hold the financial press "accountable" for its calls, which don't seem much more accurate than those of the analysts he excoriates in his column?
Disclosure: I own some shares of Apple.