Rich Karlgaard: No safe harbors for traditional value stocks (2000)

From where did this loony idea emerge that a cowlicked midwesterner who buys stock in companies that turn out syrupy fizz water, bland ice milk and lefty newspapers should thus be known as a Value Investor?...Tech will roar back. It will continue its merry dash toward infinite powers at zero cost. It will transform all in its path. Markets may (and just did) correct for overvalue, but they can't abjure the laws of physics... Bottom line: In such an explosive economy, there will be no safe harbors for traditional 'value' stocks.

~ Rich Karlgaard, publisher, Forbes Magazine, Forbes, May 2000

Rich Karlgaard on the (bad) advice of Forbes columnists

Happily, there is a small but reliable pro-market commentariat that will guide you in understanding the world's economies. Two of them precede me on these pages. I also always listen to Brian Wesbury, the chief economist for First Trust Advisors, and the great Art Laffer of Laffer Associates.

For stock tips, you can't beat Ken Fisher. Even if you have read Ken's FORBES columns, don't miss his new book, The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't. Original thinking and witty writing by a great investor.

~ Rich Karlgaard, publisher, Forbes, "Pundits Versus the Market," January 29, 2007

Rich Karlgaard: "It is not clear that we are in a recession" (2008)

The U.S. economy is in better shape than the pundits, polls, and press say it is. It is not clear that we are in a recession. The Fed is on the case, bargain hunters like Warren Buffett are moving in, signalling a bottom. Small business is curiously robust despite the credit crunch. Employment is still pretty strong. Every commercial flight I've been on this year has been oversold. But there is a deeper cause of economic anxiety and it is the underlying rate of economic change. That rate is accelerating. Companies that are leaders in their industries - and this applies to leaders in all industries - are falling out of leadership faster than before. New and disruptive companies are popping up everywhere, like jaguars amid elephants.

~ Rich Karlgaard, Forbes Video, September 15, 2008

Karlgaard: "These are small problems"

I think this is the pause that refreshes. Look, stocks are cheap, profits are up, the 10-year Treasury is low, earnings yield/bond yield spreads are about where they were in February. It’s a great buying opportunity. I don’t think we’re going to be near the top of this market until we see a wave of IPOs and I expect that in ’08 or ’09.

All of the problems are in the billions and tens of billions. The global economy is in the tens of trillions. So these are small problems.

~ Rich Karlgaard, publisher, Forbes, as appeared on CNBC’s Kudlow & Company, August 2, 2007