Q-News

July 2009

Market Bottom or Trouble Ahead?

Posted in Mike's Commentary

Addressing Morgan Stanley’s decision to publish “How Teenagers Consume Media”, Edward Hill-Wood, executive director of Morgan Stanley’s European media team, was quoted as saying in articles in The Guardian and The Financial Times that 15 year old intern Matthew Robson’s report was “one of the clearest and most thought-provoking insights we have seen — so we published it.,”  I guess Mary Meeker should freshen up her resume!

 

One just has to laugh (or LOL for the younger folks) when reading the headlines that for the most part ran along the same lines:

 

  • Financial Times – Note by “teenage scribbler” causes sensation
  • Crunchgear.com – There’s a fantastic report coming out of Morgan Stanley…
  • Timesonline – Twitter is for old people, work experience whiz-kid tells bankers…
  • The Guardian – How teenagers consume media: the report that shook the City….
  • Regator.com/whatshot – …the Morgan Stanley report that everyone’s buzzing about…

Guess what, the kid wants his music for free, can’t afford a smart phone, doesn’t pay attention to online advertising, likes to play on his Wii rather than the more expensive Playstation, hangs out at the cinema, doesn’t read newspapers and likes Facebook over Twitter.  I guess I’m supposed to short RIM, Google and Sony and give a call to Marc Andreessen at Andreessen Horowitz to tell him that his belief in Twitter is misplaced.

 

Let me ask you:  Does the average adult with a teenage son or daughter need to read the Morgan Stanley report to gain this incredible insight?

 

I would have though that the furor over this kind on nonsense would be a strong sign that we have hit market bottom.  After all, can we get much lower than this…but on the other hand maybe this episode is a clear signal that the capital markets are on a slippery slope downwards.  When an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley makes the statement that “this report was one of the clearest and most thought-provoking insights we have seen” it’s time to question the people running the capital markets.  Thoughts?

Send to a Friend

Like this article? Send it to a friend using the form below.
Your Name:
Your email address:
Friend's Name:
Friend's email address:
Message: