Back on March 7, 2011 [3], when discussing the phenomenon of Zero Hedge, prominent tech blogger and recent Bloomberg paid content expansion Paul Kedrosky had this to say: "After prolonged exposure [to Zero Hedge] I have to turn off my wi-fi not to sell all my U.S. dollars for physical gold, start an anti–Goldman Sachs blog and buy a Kansas soybean farm protected by a moat. But here is the crazy thing: Zero Hedge — a morning zoo of pessimistic financial blogging — is fun. Granted, you (O.K., I) can't read it for long without the aforementioned soybean-farmer effect, but the downbeat site has found an entertaining niche at the intersection of The X-Files, finance and tireless anti–Goldman Sachs–ishness. So while I don't read Zero Hedge regularly — it's too bearish, too conspiratorial and too much of an intellectual monoculture — I like knowing that it exists." This is all poetically ironic. Because in the 15 months since this statement made the public record, gold has returned 13.24% (after hitting an all time record high) while Goldman has declined by 33.85%...
[4]
... But most entertaining is that moments ago soybean futures just hit an all time high, and are now up 36% since March 7, 2011.
[5]
Perhaps that Kansas soybean farm, with or without a moat, would not have been such a bad investment after all.
Then again, it is oftentimes wiser to urge the nouveau intelligentsia of the world to piggyback into the latest bandwagon of brilliance-cum-slam dunk investment such as Facebook. After all it is techy, it's growthy, and is full of sophisticated buzzwords.
As for this intellectual monoculture, we will stick with the 20%+ blended YoY, if too bearish and conspiratorial, thing.