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Strategies & Market Trends : Bob Brinker: Market Savant & Radio Host -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Shepherd who wrote (5857)	7/12/1998 1:17:00 AM
From: wooden ships	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 42834

Bill- The old saw, "one man's meat is another man's poison," may apply here. Brinker need not, in my view, fear that he has been upstaged by today's guest host. Indeed, I am not certain whether I might have preferred the loathesome "goddess of money" to the maudlin, self-promoting, and trite Stephen Pollan, guest host of today's show. His insipid, saccharine, and tedious avuncular style in combination with a seemingly shallow knowledge of the markets would have made for three hours of unendurable torture had I not punctuated the ordeal with occasional minutes of radio silence. More than this, I thought it unconscionable that he would advise a retired couple to sell off all of about $770,000 worth of 30 year US Treasuries(purchased years ago for $560,000, maturing A.D. 2018, and yielding 9 1/2%) in order to fulfill his counsel to "broaden their investments." "Uncle" Stephen should be listening more care- fully to Bob Brinker. For weeks, Brinker has sagely warned investors, new era or no, not to expect overall market returns exceeding 8% to 10% going forward. Nor did Pollan remind the Napa Valley couple that their extraordinary 9 1/2% yearly return on investment was entirely free of onerous California State taxes and free of risk. To compound the travesty, but true to form for a half-wit, the ever glib and glabrous Pollan failed to inform the trusting caller either of a market at historic unprecedented highs or the pru- dence of dollar cost averaging at these rarefied levels. Since the caller expressed an interest in passing this asset to her grandchildren, the unctuous and heedless Pollan suspended his "die broke" rule. He needn't have. It is not without the realm of possibilty that both grandparents and inheriting grandchildren will all die broke if Pollan's thoughtless advice is heeded. Given Pollan's performance today, it is to be wondered whether there may be something perverse underlying this man's philosophy and excessively oily manner. Perhaps, it were truer to the mark had he entitled his book Die Broken rather than Die Broke. Suffice it to say, I, for one, shall hastily revisit the off knob of the family radio set if Pollan's voice be heard tomorrow in lieu of Brinker's.