Joshua Brown's 3 Biggest Investment Fads Of 2011

Joshua Brown, one of our StockTwits favorites aka @reformedbroker, was on CNBC last night and offered three investment fads for 2011, including social networking IPOs, muni defaults, and commodities like agriculture.

Of special interest to Green Skeptic readers, Josh suggests avoiding anything tied too closely to the Chinese infrastructure build-out and he doesn't think natural gas is quite ready, but suggests "keeping an eye on it" and "maybe even start to nibble," especially if oil goes over $100, which several sources are fully expecting in 2011.

On Cramer vs. Stewart, Corporate Leadership, CNBC, and a Pivotal Moment

I'll admit that I find Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money, entertaining. Cramer is entertaining in the same way as those old "Crazy Eddie" ads: "He's IN-sane!"

Cramer's enthusiasm and showmanship is fun to watch and his crazy antics are amusing -- throwing pies at CEOs on his Wall of Shame, punching buttons like a carnival barker to generate hoots, hollers, and recorded noises and phrases.

But as Jon Stewart said in his skewerview of the frenetic host, Cramer is a snake oil salesman.

To the extent that he taught folks how to think about investing, that was a good thing. And in his defense, Cramer often warned retail investors to do their homework, to only buy stock in companies they understand and whose products they use, and to be diversified.

That a majority of his viewers didn't take his advice and just bought when he punched the "Buy, buy buy" button or sold at "Sell, sell, sell," it's probably their own damned fault.

But it's the larger picture that really bothers me. CNBC's business model seemed to be based on the cult of the CEO, wealth-worship, and a hubris of growth. They forsook journalism for entertainment.

And this was clear from Cramer's response to Stewart's taunts on the subject: "CEOs lied to me." To which Stewart quipped something like "What happened to Journalism 101?" You don't take their word for it; you investigate further.

I stopped watching CNBC late last summer. I couldn't take it anymore. The smarmy hosts of Squawk Box every morning were two-headed beasts, simultaneously crying "The sky is falling," while licking the loafers of the parade of CEOs and other executives who were the proverbial wolves in sheep's clothing.

As it turns out, most of the CEOs were lying or at least not being entirely truthful -- or worse, they were really clueless themselves.

Our collective rage was unleashed by Jon Stewart on the nonplussed Jim Cramer. Cramer was our scapegoat and his mea culpa and pleas of I'll try to do better seemed genuine. I didn't see his show the day after the Stewart interview, but that would have been an opportunity for him to apologize to his viewers and begin to make amends. I understand that it was just more of the same.

It's too bad, because I really think we're at a pivotal moment. We have an opportunity to shift the way companies are run, journalism is practiced, and business is pursued. We should seize this opportunity to fire the bums and create a new standard of trust and transparency for CEOs, the journalists who cover them, and the consumers who buy their stock, products, or watch their programs.

Otherwise, this will be a missed opportunity and all that rage expressed by Jon Stewart will have been just another play for ratings. (Which I'm sure it was in part.)

A sustainable economy will require a new kind of CEO and a new relationship between companies and the media that writes about them. It will also require that we as consumers and viewers take more responsibility for doing our homework and maintaining a healthy skepticism.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Unedited Interview Pt. 1

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The Story is Where It's @: Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference 2009

Every time I get out into the Philadelphia entrepreneur and start-up scene, I marvel at the amount of great ideas, people, and companies there are here.


(Photo: The Green Skeptic--in StockTwits cap--with Donny Deutsch at Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference, Philadelphia.)

It really does feel like a groundswell forming beneath our feet -- or between the Delaware and the Schuylkill rivers.

The Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference, sponsored by Morgan Lewis, has been running for the past twelve years to become one of the country's most widely attended entrepreneurship gatherings.

This year, the conference was all about stories.

And what better way to open than to hear from Julian Brodsky, founder, director and chairman of Comcast Corporation and the brain behind Comcast's venture arm.

Brodsky, who helped found Comcast back in 1963, told the story of the company's rise from a Philly-based owner of a few TV licenses in Tupelo, MS, to the powerhouse it is today.

Along the way, Brodsky revealed the intricate web of Philly connections to just about every major technological/media innovation over the past 46 years, from QVC to half.com, from Safeguard Scientifics to Internet Capital Group. (Hint: the common denominator is, once again, Pete Musser.)

I've heard another veteran of the Delaware Valley, Steven Goodman from Morgan Lewis, tell another piece of the story and I'm more convinced than ever that someone needs to chronicle this history. A phascinating story.

Panels on Clean Tech, Monetizing Web 2.0 and Mobile communications, and a couple of real-world case studies were also served up during the course of the day. (You can check out my live Tweeting from those sessions and the entire conference here.)

Twenty-five of the region's most promising start-ups were also featured in WEC25 expo, running during the conference, including three green companies: eco, green.konnect.me, and American Resource Conservation.

In the closing keynote, Donny Deutsch, Chairman of Deutsch, Inc. and host of CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch shared his story and insights to encourage the entrepreneurs in the room to stay focused on their ideas and do what they love.

My three take-aways from the conference today:

1) There's so much great stuff happening in Philly;
2) We need 10-15 year horizon for real clean tech advances to be made; and
3) "Why NOT me?" (Donny Deutsch)

Read more about the Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference
and @ Phillypreneurs