Wednesday morning, Rick Santelli, the very knowledgable CNBC commentator who watches the U.S. Bond market said that PIMCO (world's most successful bond manager) had made a statement that it was their expectation that more Central Banks would be buying gold in lieu of U.S. Treasuries. PIMCO has a track record of managing money that is simply put..very good. They are not gun-slingers, in fact, their style is somewhat conservative. A statement like this, coming from them has, in my opinion a great deal of credibility.
Regarding Santelli, he is very smart in a narrow range of investing. I wouldn't call him "very knowledgeable" in the broad sense since I've seen him struggle to answer questions. He's more opinionated than knowledgeable. Regarding Pimco, they are just repeating what central banks have already indicated. No big deal there either.
I meant that I believe Santelli is very good regarding describing the trading in U.S. Treasuries and other elements of the bond market..not necessarily anything outside of that. As far as struggling to answer questions..a live broadcast is a situation where you have to be fast on your feet as far as providing answers. It isn't necessarily true that the inability to do this implies that you don't know what you're talking about. Some people are not hard wired to provide the instantaneous answers that a fast-paced medium like TV requires. If you're the sort of individual that would like to organize your thoughts before you speak, it's likely you'll come across as somewhat "dumb" on TV since there will be that embarassing interlude of "dead air time" before you answer a question. To my point of view, I'd rather have quality than speed and television generally emphasizes the latter more than the former. Insofar as PIMCO is concerned, while their statement lacks originality, having read countless articles by members of this firm over the last decade, they've gotten the big picture mostly right. The fact that they are recognizing gold as a meaningful factor in today's market is simply a validation by a firm I have a great deal of respect for. That is simply my opinion.
I can accept situations where folks on TV have trouble expressing their thoughts when they don't have prepared remarks, but I was thinking more about situations where he provided completely wrong answers. He would have been better off just admitting he didn't know. This applies to others too. I'm not just picking on him.
I definitely agree with the idea that it's sometimes necessary to say "I don't know." When Jean-Marie Eveillard, the legendary value manager appeared as the lead guest on the old "Wall Street Week" years ago, Louis Rukeyser asked him " Jean-Marie, where do you see the market headed from here?". He replied " I don't know." He then said that predicting short term market movements was impossible due to the day to day events that toss the averages around in a random way.