You may have heard that Americans are now getting their news online, instead of reading it in newspapers. They’re not.
Most of what appears online and is called “news” fits that classification only in the broadest sense of the word. Instead of going online to read about the Iranian nuclear deal, the economic turmoil in China or continuing slow growth in the U.S., Americans are reading about the Kardasians, Caitlyn Jenner and ex-Subway pitchman Jared Fogle.
If you doubt the above, consider that NBCUniversal just announced it is investing $200 million in Buzzfeed, which now has a value of $1.5 billion.
Buzzfeed, as you’re probably aware, is a site that is notorious for its lists. Today, for example, you can find “16 Sexts Every Twentysomething Actually Wants,” “40 Random Thoughts We’ve All Had The Night Before School” and “99 Names For B**bs” (Note: our standards are higher than Buzzfeed’s, but you can probably figure it out).
In a review of traffic to news sites, including the The New York Times, The Atlantic and a few other sites, Buzzfeed had 15 of the top 20 most-visited posts. The New York Times had one.
So if Buzzfeed is worth $1.5 billion, we figure it’s time to muscle in a bit, so that we can monetize Wenning Advice. We can’t compete with “The 13 Creepiest Things A Child Has Ever Said To A Parent” or “27 Shocking And Unexpected Things You Learn In Your Twenties,” but with posts like “Maybe the Fed Is Just Lazy” or “Brady Plot Puts U.S. Economy on Verge of Deflation,” this blog must be worth at least a few hundred million. Anyone? NBCUniversal, can you give me a call?
We Can Do Lists, Too
In the interest of upping our valuation, we’re not above copying Buzzfeed. Just to prove that we can do lists, too, here are a few:
The Only Six Stocks That Matter. The Wall Street Journal apparently also wants to muscle in on Buzzfeed’s success, as it ran an article noting that the stocks of six companies account for more than half of the $664 billion in value added this year to the Nasdaq Composite Index. The six companies, according to data compiled by JonesTrading, are Amazon.com, Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix and Gilead Sciences.
Likewise, Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, Gilead and Walt Disney Co. account for more than 100% of the $199 billion in market-capitalization gains in the S&P 500 this year.
Why does this concentration matter?
As The Wall Street Journal notes, “The concentrated gains are spurring concerns that soft trading in much of the market could presage a pullback in the indexes. Many investors see echoes of prior market tops—including the 2007 peak and the late 1990s frenzy—when fewer and fewer stocks lifted the broader market. The S&P 500 is up 1% this year while the Nasdaq has gained 7.4%.”
Nine Countries Experiencing Stock Market Corrections. As further evidence that central bankers are running the world, consider that the countries whose year-to-date returns are outperforming those of the rest of the world are the countries whose economies are in dismal shape, but that are either practicing or considering some form of quantitative easing.
Tracking the year-to-date returns for international exchange traded funds (ETFs), top performers include ETFs for Japan, which is up 10% YTD; Russia, which is up 7.25%, and Italy, which is up 9.85%.
Conversely, countries and regions that are more stable than that—and have enough sense not to pursue QE—have experienced negative returns. Among the countries experiencing corrections, based on their ETF returns, are:
Australia -12.81%
Brazil -28.75%
Canada -16%
Greece -28%
Indonesia -27%
Norway -9.39%
South Korea -15.39%
Spain -5%
Taiwan -14.23%
In addition, Asia (excluding Japan) is down 11.51%, while Latin America as a whole is down 22%. As the chart shows, United Kingdom stock is down 10% from its record highs and it has seen no appreciation since Feb 2013.
We could go farther, as Zerohedge did, and mention 23 countries whose stock markets are already crashing. Now that’s something you won’t find on Buzzfeed.
Five Reasons Why Wenning Advice Is Worth More Than Buzzfeed. Here’s our countdown:
- Unlike Buzzfeed, Wenning Advice won’t kill too many of your brain cells.
- Our overhead costs are lower.
- Our readers aren’t limited to millennials, who still have lots of student debt and no money to spend.
- Buzzfeed didn’t predict that interest rates will stay near zero this year.
- We don’t usually publish lists and try to pass it off as news.