This is a guest contribution by Damien Hoffman, editor-in-chief of the very popular Wall St Cheat Sheet blog. Make sure to put this site on your must-read list.

Nouriel Roubini and His Acolytes

Following the incredible popularity of my post “Is Nouriel Roubini a False Prophet?“, I’ve decided to do a little introductory lesson for those more interested in avoiding charlatans …

Cold Reading is a primary set of techniques employed by phony psychics and market prognosticators. When cold reading, the primary objective of the sender is to ensure that the recipient perceives the statement/prophecy to be a hit. Here are a few classic techniques used by Ms. Cleo and Nouriel Roubini:

TECHNIQUE 1. The “Rainbow Ruse”: Indicate one trait

...

MARKET COMMENT April 22, 2009 I got a lot of emails wondering where we’ve been and the simple explanation is we had a family health crisis to deal with. Resolving this is proceeding. I was very much aware of the tough market on Monday and the resulting rally Tuesday. The negative earnings and economic news means little it seems. Sure, there is some good news here and there and bulls’ cherry-pick it while dismissing the negative as just old news. According to Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jerfferies & Co.: “The important thing with these earnings reports is that no one has been so atrociously bearish with their guidance to slow the market down. We’re clearly in a situation where the path of least resistance is higher.” That’s comical. Volume still remains on the light side which means ...

The U.S. economy shed 693,000 jobs in December, a showing that was far worse than economists had expected and that may even have been the biggest monthly loss of jobs in more than 30 years, analysts said of a closely watched survey of business employment released yesterday (Tuesday).

The monthly ADP Employer Services (ADP) survey - which tracks private non-farm payroll employment - stunned economists, showing a surprising increase from the 476,000 jobs lost in November.

The decline was the worst in the history of the survey, which began reporting in 2001. And if the findings are matched by the official government jobs report, due out Friday, it would be the biggest employment drop since the U.S. recession of 1975.

“This is an eye-poppingly bad number,” Art Hogan, the New York-based chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. (JEF), told Bloomberg News. “The economy is in

...