Droppin' Knowledge: Doug Kass Takes on the Perma-Bears

“I have often written that both perma-bears and perma-bulls are attention-getters, not money-makers.”

Doug Kass, May 2009

On May 27th, TRB fave commentator Doug Kass of Seabreeze Partners and TheStreet.com took on the Cult of the Perma-Bears. 

 As someone who is often characterized as a bear, he sought to establish the difference between people who have made profitable bearish calls or short-sales and people who are just always pessimistic no matter what.

From TSC:
The perma-bear cult, of which I have often been accused of being a member, is an especially strange clique that often sees the clandestine plunge protection teams saving the U.S. stock market at critical points. They have never met a government statistic they like but instead see the U.S. government as “massaging” and revising employment, inflation and many other economic statistics in order to paint a positive picture. They express contempt for second derivative economic improvement and never or rarely ever see prosperity. They view seeds of recovery as Superman saw Kryptonite and extrapolate economic/stock market weakness to the extreme.

And they never ever or rarely make money.

Doug goes on to differentiate some of his hedge fund peers who also find themselves lumped in with this group, like David Rocker and Jim Chanos.

I’ve been reading Doug’s stuff forever in long form on TheStreet.com, but unfortunately, much of what he says in the mainstream media gets soundbited or extrapolated to the point where you would think he’s a bear 24/7. 

This is simply not the case. 

Like many of his readers, I will never forget his legitimate call of the market bottom in early March, way before almost anyone else I could think of had anything good to say (including many perma-bulls, who were in their fallout shelters at the time).

Full Story: The Perma-Bear Cult (TSC)